AMSND 15 - The Last of the Shakespeare

(Josie Sayz: This is the fifteenth story, from my ‘AMSND’ series that I wrote when I was 15 years old. This story follows in the series of the ‘AMSND’ stories, which inspired me to create the Arcturus High series.

Although each story is a stand alone piece, you can find the rest of the AMSND series here:

1) A Magic School’s New Dream: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/ansnd-1-magic-schools-new-dream.html

2) The War of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-2-war-of-crooked-burrow-school.html

 3) Six Se’enarians Go To Sea: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-3-six-senerians-go-to-sea.html

4) The Arrival of a New Headmistress: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-4-arrival-of-new-headmistress.html

5) The Day Before the Last (Day of Term):

https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-5-day-before-last-day-of-term.html

6) The Story of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/02/amsnd-6-story-of-crooked-burrow-school.html

7) The End of the Octopus: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-7-end-of-octopus.html

8) The King of Magic: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-8-king-of-magic.html

9) The Return of Dr Straizer, Featuring Agent 009: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-9-return-of-dr-straizer-featuring.html

10) Fifteen-Eighty: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-10-fifteen-eighty.html

11) Accidentally in Love: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-11-accidentally-in-love.html

12) Ariel and the Seven Dudes: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-12-ariel-and-seven-dudes.html

13) The End of the Arians Part 1: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-13-end-of-arians-part-1.html

14) The End of the Arians Part 2: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-14-end-of-arians-part-2.html.)

The Last of the Shakespeare

 

The sun heated the ground and gave the grass a warm, dry touch. The sun beamed brightly against front windows of a huge mysterious glass building. Nine school friends wandered mindlessly around the magic garden of the mysterious building that they found themselves in. Confused as to how they got there and no memory to recall the past few hours, the nine friends circled the garden in search for directions of how to get back home.

“Where are we?” asked Lyra worriedly in attempt to break the silence.

“I don’t know,” answered Lola in a whisper with the sensation that they were being watched.

“How did we get here?” asked Toby confusedly staring up at the large windowed building in front of them. It was over thirty stories high and appeared to be almost as wide.

“Well what I want to know is what on earth I am doing walking with you guys?” asked Fred curiously. From what he could remember he had manipulated Lyra into finding the octopus snow globe for him, which she didn’t, he was in love with Lola, who was now standing to his left side, he had killed Shada, Toby, Samantha, Lyra and Lara. But he could see them. Did that mean he was dead too? Then he had a flash back of an argument with Charlie, but after that he couldn’t recall anything that had happened to him until now; he was wandering around a large garden in front of a large windowed building with eight people (Lyra, Lola, Lara, Toby, Aidan, Samantha, Shada and Charlie) who probably didn’t like him very much.

“Well if you don’t want to be with us, then maybe you shouldn’t have come!” shouted Charlie angrily.

“I didn’t!” Fred yelled back at Charlie, trying hard to resist lashing out at him.

“I wonder what we are doing here?” said Samantha looking around. The nine friends (or not-so-friends) came to a halt and began to examine the building that towered beside them.

 “Why don’t we go inside and ask someone for directions?” Lyra pointed out. She thought that it seemed the most logical thing to do been as they were all lost.

The nine children entered the building. Not knowing where to go Charlie led the group over to what looked like a large reception desk where an old man with spectacles and a small beard sat. The desk was made out of solid gold, as was the man’s desk lamp, inkpot and quill. “You look lost, children. How may I help you?” spoke the old man helpfully at the reception desk peering down his glasses. Shada, Samantha, Charlie, Lola, Lyra, Lara, Toby and Aidan all pushed Fred forwards. He nearly tripped, but grabbed out for the golden desk before he landed on his face. “Yes young man, do speak up boy. What is it?” asked the old man agitatedly. “You know I have a very busy schedule, what with the deaths of Crooked Burrow School and all.”

Fred looked confused for a moment, but he soon put the thought out of his mind and remembered that they were lost, “Well you see sir… us nine are… well we’re lost.”

“Well, tell me where you’re supposed to be and I’ll just look it up. I know it takes a while for you new ones to find your way around,” spoke the old man getting in a mess with his papers, which were all over the desk.

“New ones?” puzzled Fred. “Actually we don’t know where we are!” exclaimed Fred. “Anyway it’s all his fault,” he said pointing at Charlie.

“Yeah, well if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be in this mess!” shouted Charlie.

“Charlie, don’t blame Fred, it wasn’t all his fault,” Shada tried to make peace between them.

“Oh, so now you like Fred as well as Toby. Well-” Charlie glared at Shada. Shada pouted, but it didn’t change Charlie’s expression, so she hid behind Samantha.

“Oh,” spoke the man slowly. “You nine must be the new ones. Well may I be the first to welcome you all to heaven,” he smiled cheerfully. “Welcome to ‘Heaven Academy’.”

“Huh?” Shada, Samantha, Lyra and Lola’s mouths dropped in shock.

“Heaven School!” exclaimed Toby. “I never even paid attention in earth school.”

“Yep. Turn around,” the old man instructed. All nine children turned around in amazement. A huge golden banner hung slightly above the arched doorway, it said ‘WELCOME ALL to Heaven Academy!’

“Well done Fred, you killed us all,” Charlie snapped sarcastically.

“Well if I killed you all how come I’m in heaven? I bet you didn’t think of that did you?” yelled Fred back, quite pleased with his fast come-back, but unsure with whether he agreed with himself.

“Boys! Will you please stop bickering for just one minute? Crooked Burrow School isn’t it?” he asked. Lyra, Lola and Lara nodded. “Yes…” spoke the man slowly looking down at a page of his huge book. “We had a lot of trouble fitting you all in on such short notice. There have been an awful lot of deaths in your school lately. Let’s hope that’s the last of it or they’ll be no pupils left,” he joked. “Now as I said we had a lot of trouble fitting you all in, as you probably know there were a lot of deaths not too long ago. So while we have been getting your schedules and rooms sorted, your spirits have just been wandering earth mindlessly, haunting people, until we were ready for you. Oh and Toby you’re not a pheasant anymore as you can probably tell, you have the big guy upstairs to thank for that.”

“God?” Toby gasped amazed.

“No silly. Merlin the magician of course, he’s highly in charge of magical things here at Heaven Academy.” The old man rummaged around in a drawer of his desk while he was speaking and pulled out nine pieces of paper. “You also may find that you have difficulty remembering some things that happened close to your deaths. These memories will become clearer after a while. We’ve had to split the class into two now there are so many of you. Here are your schedules that you shall follow unless notified otherwise by the other big guy upstairs.”

“God?” Toby gasped again.

“No, Mr. Algebra. He hasn’t been here long. He died after some misdeed with Captain Evil or something of the sort – anyway he is an amazing schedule planner.” He handed each of the children their own schedule, which looked a lot like their Crooked Burrow School timetable. The nine children all looked puzzled. They couldn’t believe it. They were dead and they still had to go to school. “Now, there are some people waiting for you in the lobby. As there are so many of you we have had a lobby designed especially for Crooked Burrow School students. Only you students now have access. It’s just through that door there.” The old man raised a long bony finger and pointed to the right of him. “They’ve been expecting you,” he smiled. All the nine followed the direction where the old man was pointing.

 “I wonder what he meant by ‘they’?” Aidan wondered curiously, but didn’t bother saying anything. Charlie took a grip on the door handle and opened the door slowly, carefully protecting the other seven, excluding Fred.

“Surprise!” shouted Bert, Ariel, Elly, Pete, Louis, Luke, Alan, Harry, Bonnie, Larissa, Nicky and Lucy. Shada and Samantha ran over to greet Bonnie and Larissa because they hadn’t seen each other in such a long time. Charlie went over to talk to Alan, Harry, Pete, Luke and Louis. Lola, Lyra, Lara and Toby ran over to talk to Nicky, Bert and Ariel. Aidan went over to see Lucy, who had been his girlfriend. Fred felt left out because he had no friends. He’d lost all his friends through fights and arguments and the amount of deaths occurring in Crooked Burrow School.

“So Shada, Larissa tells me that you’ve been going out with Charlie – is this true?” Bonnie asked.

“Well…” Shada hesitated.

“Ha!” laughed Charlie sarcastically. “Not anymore, she likes Toby.” Charlie sulked. Shada went red from embarrassment and looked down at the floor. Bert looked over at Shada curiously and then suddenly remembered something.

“Everyone who just came in,” Bert began and waited for everyone’s attention. “I need you all to drink from this cup, because mixed in here is a potion that will erase any spell that you were put under up to a couple of months before you died.” He held out a rather large cup in his hand.

“Why will it only erase any spell that we were put under up to a couple of months before we died, why not all of the spells?” Lyra asked nosily.

“Never mind that,” Bert said firmly. “This may help us to figure out what has been happening,” Bert said and held the large cup out towards Toby as he was the closest to him. Toby took a small sip and pulled a funny face.

“Yuck!” Toby exclaimed. “This is disgusting!”

“Yes Toby, but how do you feel?” Bert asked interestedly.

“Normal,” stated Toby. “Except now I have a horrible taste in my mouth.” Bert passed the cup around making everyone who had just come in take a sip from it. From Toby it went to Lola, then Lyra, Lara, Aidan and Charlie. Bert then passed the cup on to Samantha. She looked into the cup anxiously.

“Don’t worry Samantha,” Bert told her calmly. “It’ll be okay. Just take a small sip of the potion.” Samantha looked worriedly towards Shada, who nodded her head and put her hand on Samantha’s shoulder.

“Come on Sam,” she whispered. “You can do it.” After a little hesitation, Samantha sipped the potion and quickly passed the cup to Shada. To prove she was brave, Shada quickly took a drink of the sickening potion and looked across the room to where she had been staring.

“Argh!” Shada jumped. Everyone looked at her worriedly. “What was wrong with me? Why did I think I liked Toby?” she shrieked disgusted in herself.

“Because you were under a spell,” Bert said in a curious tone looking around the room for a guilty face.

“Charlie,” Shada cried. “Can you ever forgive me?” She begged. Charlie smiled at her. He was relieved to discover that Shada’s sudden love for Toby had been because of a spell, and he was certain he knew who has cast it.

“Of course I forgive you,” Charlie smiled walking over to give Shada a hug. “And I guess my evil cousin’s to blame. I told you I always hate my relatives.” Shada giggled at him.

“And now for Fred…” Bert said with interest. Everyone watched Fred carefully as he took the final sip of the potion. “How do you feel Fred?”

“Normal…” he replied. “Although now I don’t know why I ever fancied Lola…”

“Odd,” replied Bert suddenly. “Very odd. I thought for sure… oh, never mind.” Bert took the cup with a draining of the potion left and placed it down on a nearby table. “I welcome you all. But I’m afraid I need to alert you all about something, before you begin your schedule.” Everyone looked towards Bert, who had a cold look on his face. “As many of you from Heaven Academy are aware I have been using my special crystal ball to see down onto Crooked Burrow School. And as for you new arrivals that were aware of my loss of powers yes, I have them back. Now I witnessed the event which resulted in your deaths – the arrival of Miss Hanlon. I may now inform you all that Miss Hanlon was from the future, as was Mr. Foote. She was in fact Mr. Foote’s teacher, who had come to check up on him and feared that he had been too lazy and was concerned with the lack of discipline and ability for ordinary students to get their hands on Frandadis fruits. Well Mr. Foote knew that he could not leave you all and just hop back to the future, especially with many trained Arians dead, like myself. So he had planned to kill you all.” Bert explained very seriously. Everyone gasped.

“Kill us…” Lola stuttered.

“Yes and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had charmed Fred into carrying out his dirty work for him,” Bert finished.

“You mean Fred killed us without meaning to…” stuttered Samantha as she took it all in. Bert nodded at her.

“But that means I killed him and meant to. I’m a real criminal,” Charlie cried out when he realised what he had done.

“No, you’re just a victim in all this. You all are,” Bert reassured Charlie that he had done no wrong. “But now Miss Hanlon has removed all magic from Crooked Burrow School and Mr. Foote has disappeared without a trace.”

“I wasn’t under a spell,” Fred spoke out with a slightly angered tone. Everyone gasped and turned towards him. A small murmur built up in the room.

“Ah ha!” shouted Charlie. “So you admit to killing us all.”

“Let Fred explain,” Ariel insisted, wanting to hear the story. “Go on Fred…”

“It all started that one afternoon. I met Bert in the alleyway, like I usually did, and I was complaining about how Charlie was Second-Best Ellarian and I was just the secretary,” Fred began. Bert sniggered as he remembered the conversation. “Bert was complaining about how he regretted dumping Ariel because she became an Art.” Ariel looked up at Bert and smiled sweetly at him. “So, Bert got me to help him come up with a plan to get her back. Only I still had feelings for her and wanted her for myself.” Elly and Bert looked at him disgustedly. “The only thing was that Bert stood in my way. I couldn’t get Ariel for myself, Bert would think that I did it all for him. My plan was to get rid of him – forever. But then things all got complicated and out of hand and then I realised that it was all one big mistake – that it was best for Ariel and Bert to still be together, but the damage was already done – which is when Ariel and Bert’s bodies were placed together in Pete’s shed.”

“What about me?” screeched Elly. “Why did you have to kill me too?”

“You might have said something to prove I was guilty…” Fred said innocently.

“What about all the other deaths then? Explain them?” demanded Charlie.

“The explosion in the Music practice room as you know was NOT my fault. But I do admit killing Shada, Toby, Samantha, Lyra and Lara,” Fred explained.

“And me,” Charlie added spitefully.

“Actually I don’t remember that.”

“You were whispering that killing spell. You killed Lyra and Lara and then you killed me. You finished the spell just as I killed you, ending all of your killings,” explained Charlie in an evil tone.

“I hate you!” Fred said harshly.

“And I hate you back!” yelled Charlie. Everyone in the room sat in silence, looking around the room at each other.

It was Pete who was brave enough to break the silence: “Alright guys, whoever wants the best tour of ‘Heaven Academy’ better come with me and Louis,” Pete announced. “NOW!” Pete and Louis both stood up and in front of the doorway. The deadly silence stopped and murmuring built between the group.

“I’ll go if you go Toby,” Lola smiled.

“All right, I’ll go… you coming Lyra, Lara… Aidan?” Toby asked. Aidan walked to the door with Lucy, as did Lola, Toby and Lyra.

“Laz, I’m gonna go with these. I’ll see you in Mr. S’ class,” Nicky told his girlfriend. He quickly caught up with Pete and Louis before they disappeared out of the door. As the tour began everyone else seemed to gradually disappear out of the door, except for a fair few.

Once they had gone out of the room all was silent again. “Me and Bert are going to find Woody, Caleb and Gertrude we’re putting on a magic show later, and we’re in it – so we’re going to find them, and we’ve got to get Robin, and -” Ariel began to explain.

“Ariel, Bert… just go,” smiled Larissa shaking her head. Now there were only the four friends left: Shada, Samantha, Larissa and Bonnie.

“So Shada, you’ve really gone out with Charlie?” Bonnie asked curiously, as if she thought that it was unbelievable.

“Yes it’s true!” Shada shouted in demand to be believed. “Tell her, Sam.”

“It is true, you even said Larissa told you so, remember?” replied Samantha. “Isn’t that right Laz…? Laz… Laz, hello?” Larissa was daydreaming as usual. Samantha waved her hand in front of Larissa’s face.

Larissa jumped. “Oh, what?” Larissa gasped.

“What were you staring at, Laz?” asked Shada cheekily.

“No one,” Larissa insisted blushing.

“So you were looking at someone through the window,” sang Bonnie. “That wasn’t your boyfriend, I might add. Oh…what was his name again? Oh yes… I believe it was Aidan,” Bonnie explained in a sarcastic tone.

“No I wasn’t!” Larissa went red in the face and lay back on the sofa seat that the four of them were sitting on. Shada, Bonnie and Samantha all burst out laughing.

Pete, Louis, Nicky and Lucy were having a really fun time showing Fred, Lola, Toby, Lyra, Lara, Charlie and Aidan around ‘Heaven Academy’. Lola and Toby had been leaving Lyra out of their conversations, which made Lyra feel upset. Nicky (having left his girlfriend (Larissa) behind so she could talk to her friends) was also feeling a little alone. “Okay, everyone this is the Main Hall type place, where classes sometimes hold presentations. On the left is a drama room, which I think Woody and Caleb are in,” Pete explained. He opened the door to the drama room and waved to whoever was in there. Nicky noticed that Lyra was on her own so he went over to talk to her.

“Lyra, you can walk with me… I mean… well – you know, if you want to?” stuttered Nicky nervously.

“Okay,” she smiled cheerfully, hugging Nicky. Nicky smiled and they carried on the tour.

Back at Crooked Burrow School it felt empty (because a lot of people had died). Zilla was all alone as she came down the Haunted Staircase; she was happy as she was about to meet Jay, who she had stolen from Orora and got him to go to the New Year’s Eve dance with her. Jay and Drew were both happy, or at least they were pretending to be. Jane (who was Larissa’s cousin) was up to no good. She had placed a bowl of flour above Miss Tallbald’s door then, once Miss Tallbald was covered from top to toe in flour, blamed Zilla for it. Miss Tallbald had given Zilla a whole week’s detention, for Jane’s misdoing. Dannie and Tim were taking advantage of the school being emptier and had appointed themselves as in charge of the new after school secret club, Magicianism. Their club involved performing illusions that magicians like Tommy Cooper used to do, except it wasn’t very popular, only their friends Tiny Tim, Treg, Drake and Lannie were a part of their club. Since all of the Arians had died and Miss Hanlon had gotten rid of magic everyone had seemed to notice that Mr. Foote had also disappeared. No one knew where he was or whether he was coming back, even the teachers.

Ariel and Bert were rehearsing for the magic show, along with Woody, Caleb, Robin and Gertrude. They had all been part of magic, back in Crooked Burrow School. Now they were rehearsing for one of the biggest magic shows they had ever done. They wanted to impress Albertus, one of the greatest magicians of all time, the founder of Crooked Burrow School, along with several of his magician friends. And Bert wanted to prove to Albertus (his great-grandfather) that he was a really great magician. But the others were unaware that Albertus was an all powerful evil magician and he had been manipulating the minds of people, turning them to evil (to the art of dark magic) for the past ninety years. Robin and Ariel had their own trick, which involved lots of Frandadis fruits. Woody and Bert had made up their own trick and so had Caleb and Gertrude. They all felt extremely nervous. This was because there was a huge grand finale trick, where all six of them had to perform one trick together, with Bert as the ringleader. They had never heard of anyone who had ever attempted a six person magic trick before so they were even more nervous. If they could pull it off, they would be known as the best magicians of all time. “Ariel I’m quite scared… what if we can’t do it in front of all of those people. We will be performing in front of the largest audience I have ever seen,” Bert whispered to her worriedly.

“Don’t worry Bert,” she told him. “It’s just nerves. Everything will be fine.”

Shada and Samantha were led into a room by Bonnie and Larissa. This room contained five sets of bunk beds. Opposite the door to the room was the first bunk bed. This belonged to Larissa and only Larissa. There was a bunk bed beside Larissa’s. “This is your bed,” Bonnie said to Shada and Samantha, pointing. Shada had the top bunk and Samantha had the bottom bunk. Bonnie climbed into her bunk which was the set of bunk beds diagonally opposite Shada and Samantha’s. “This bunk is Ariel’s and Elly’s,” Bonnie said, pointing to the bunk bed next to her. “And next to you guys, and opposite me, are supposed to be Lola and Lyra. I’m sharing with Lara,” Bonnie finished. Larissa lay at the bottom of her bed, staring up at the bottom of the top bunk. “As you can probably guess that’s Larissa’s bed,” Bonnie added. There was a small door near Bonnie’s bed which led to their bathroom.

“It’s so cool that we get to share a room,” smiled Shada in amazement.

“Why don’t you share a bunk with Laz?” wondered Samantha curiously.

“She likes her own space,” Bonnie said plainly. Shada got down from off her bed and sat on the edge of Larissa’s.

“Are you alright Laz? You’re being really quiet,” Shada asked.

“I’m fine, I’m just… well… I don’t know, confused... see, I like Nicky… I really do, he’s my boyfriend…” Larissa began.

“I knew it,” smiled Shada satisfied. “But…” She said knowing that something was wrong.

“But seeing Aidan,” Larissa continued, “I don’t know whether I might like him.”

“Oh no! We’d better hurry up. If we’re late to Mr. S’ class we’ll be marked away for the day – again!” Bonnie gasped, suddenly realising the time as she looked at her clock radio on her dressing table.

“Again for you – not me,” Larissa stated very matter-of-factly.

“Just because you’re Mr. S’ favourite student,” Bonnie sulked.

“I am not!” raged Larissa.

“Who’s Mr. S?” Samantha asked.

“We’ll explain on the way,” Bonnie ran for the door and opened it. “But right now…”

“RUN!” Larissa jumped up from her bed, grabbed her bag and left the room.

Shada, Samantha, Larissa and Bonnie ran into their classroom and quickly took their seats on the front row. “You’re late,” Luke sang, stating the obvious as soon as the four girls walked into the room.

“No we’re not,” Larissa sang nastily back in the same tune as Luke. Larissa sat in her usual seat at the front of the class in between Bonnie and Nicky. Samantha and Shada sat down in the two spare seats beside Bonnie.

“Whatever,” Luke mumbled. They all fell silent as they heard someone approach the door. Ms. Harris entered the room. “Where’s Mr. S?” Luke asked her in disgust.

“I was just looking for him myself,” Ms. Harris replied scanning the classroom.

“Yeah, well he’s not here. So why are you looking for him?” Luke asked pryingly.

“If you want my Dad he walked by around ten minutes ago,” Caleb added cheekily.

“What would I want him for?” Ms. Harris frowned with anger then stormed out. Luke gave Caleb a high-five for annoying her.

Everyone faced forward nervously. Shada, Samantha, Lyra, Lola, Toby, Charlie and Fred were all nervous about meeting their teacher. Lara and Aidan had been put in the other class, which was taught by Mr. Cartwheel. Everyone else was nervous about how calm their teacher was going to be today. Their teacher was extremely moody. If he was in a good mood then he would be nice to everyone, but when he was in a bad mood he treated the whole class as if they were bad.

“Oh,” their teacher sighed disappointedly. “The class has been divided today hasn’t it, because of the newcomers. Oh well at least we got rid of that know-it-all Gertrude – oops, did I say that out loud? I really must stop talking today.” The seven new arrivals to the class had wide opened jaws and wide eyes. “I guess you can see, but I’ll tell you anyway… I am Mr. Shakespeare,” William Shakespeare smiled. “Now I must write up a new seating plan, so that I can learn you new ones’ names.” Mr. Shakespeare plugged his laptop into the projector and brought up the seating design of the classroom onto the screen, which he had designed on the computer program Excel. In the classroom there were two rows of tables. It looked like this:

				Teacher’s	Desk
1	2		3	4	5	6		7	8
9	10		11	12	13	14		15	16

The teacher’s desk was obviously Mr. Shakespeare’s desk. Numbers one and two were originally Bert and Ariel’s seats, but Mr. Shakespeare could see that they had moved.

“What are your names?” he asked looking towards Shada and Samantha.

“I’m… Shada,” stuttered Shada in shock. She was still amazed that a famous dead writer was her teacher.

“And I’m Samantha,” Samantha added quietly. Mr. Shakespeare entered Shada and Samantha’s names into numbers one and two. The next three numbers (three, four and five) were Bonnie, Larissa and Nicky’s seats. Mr. Shakespeare knew who they were so he entered their names under three, four and five. He looked towards Lyra, who was in desk six.

“I’m Lyra,” she smiled. He typed in her name.

“I see you have some competition here Larissa,” chuckled Mr. Shakespeare.

“What do you mean, sir?” giggled Larissa, glad that Mr. S was in a good mood.

Mr. Shakespeare smiled, but didn’t say anything. He carried on with the seating plan, until it looked like this:

 

 

				Mr.	Shakespeare
Shada	Samantha		Bonnie	Larissa	Nicky	Lyra		Lola	Toby
Charlie	Fred		Luke	Louis	Caleb	Woody		Bert	Ariel

“Shada,” Charlie whispered. Shada turned around and smiled at Charlie. “Can’t you swap seats with Fred? I hate him, and I want to sit next to you. It’s the first class where we’ve ever been together.”

“Sorry Charlie,” Shada replied. “Sam asked me to sit next to her; she doesn’t want to sit by someone she doesn’t really know. Besides Fred’s your cousin, you can’t really hate him.”

“You know I don’t like my relatives,” he whispered back harshly. Mr. Shakespeare had demanded everyone’s undivided attention while he explained to them their lunchtime task. In pairs or groups they were to make a speech about a past event, and both people in the pair were to have a part. Mr. Shakespeare explained their task rather quickly (as usual) but everyone knew what they were doing and everyone had a partner.

            After everyone had eaten lunch they were sat in the picnic area discussing their task for their teacher. “We definitely have to do The Tempest,” Bert informed Ariel, who was his partner, and his girlfriend. Ariel smiled at Bert and began to jot down all that she could remember about William Shakespeare’s play ‘The Tempest’. Bert had an idea that they weren’t just going to talk about The Tempest, but they were going to perform magic as well. This would surely test his magic skills and prepare him for magic show later on.  “Bert…” Ariel began dreamily while leaning her head against his shoulder.

“What?” he replied looking down at her. She moved her head and sat upright to face him.

“Did you know that there’s a character in The Tempest called Ariel?” she asked innocently.

Bert smiled and nodded. “Yes, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to do it as the project,” Bert explained.

“Is it also the reason why you turned me invisible?” Ariel asked frowning.

“Now you know why I did that. I did it to protect you. There were a lot of bad things going on that day and in general, and what with Joe and Katie, Ben and Todd, the Arts and Musics war and deaths and such likes,” Bert explained vaguely. “And if you hadn’t become an Art and gone out with Pete then maybe you wouldn’t have died!” He realised that he had said something that he shouldn’t, so to stay safe he changed the subject, “So The Tempest…”

“Wait… you think the reason I’m dead is all my fault? Pete poisoning me and you and Fred trying to manipulate him was all my fault?” Ariel raged, “Bert in all my years of knowing you I’ve never felt so angry and so, so… disgusted in you in my whole life!”

“But you’re dead, so technically it’s not just your whole life it’s-” Bert began to try and wit his way out of it.

“Enough Bert! I don’t even want to be in the same room as you anymore!” she yelled and ran off in tears.

            Meanwhile Lyra was regretting breaking up with Nicky months ago and she had realised that she still liked him. The only problem was that he was going out with Larissa. Lyra had learnt a lot about causing trouble back in Crooked Burrow School in the boat trip to Frandadis Island and from Zilla (who had tried to convince everyone that Ariel was dead, back at Crooked Burrow School, when she wasn’t). Now Lyra was ready to be evil once again. “Nicky, why is Larissa talking over there to Aidan when she’s your girlfriend?” Lyra asked Nicky curiously. Nicky, who had already noticed this, just shrugged and turned around to stare towards the table where Larissa and Aidan were seated. They were quite far away, so they couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“You know she used to go out with him, don’t you?” Bonnie added (who was sitting opposite Lyra on the same picnic bench).

“Yeah, I know,” mumbled Nicky turning back around. “So, what are you doing for Mr. S’ speech?” he asked changing the subject.

“I heard she still likes him,” smiled Lyra evilly. Bonnie nervously looked away, she didn’t want to get Larissa into any more trouble than Lyra was doing.

“She doesn’t,” stated Nicky firmly, but not sure if he actually believed what he was saying.

“I’m sorry Nicky, but you’re just going to have to live with the facts. She likes him and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Lyra said calmly.

“She doesn’t like him and I’ll prove it to you!” snapped Nicky. He could see right through Lyra and knew that she was trying to turn him against Larissa. He turned back around again and was about to get up to talk to Larissa.

“What are-” Bonnie began as she saw Lyra pour something into Nicky’s drink. But Lyra quickly signalled Bonnie to stop talking. Nicky immediately turned around and Bonnie looked away. Lyra sat smiling.

“What are what, what?” Nicky asked the girls seriously.

“Nothing,” Lyra smiled sweetly. Nicky chose to ignore them, took a gulp from his drink, which made him hiccup. As he did Larissa came rushing over almost in tears. Bonnie looked up at her with great concern. Larissa slowly sat down beside Nicky and leant her head on his shoulder as a tear trickled down her check. Hastily Nicky moved away from Larissa and put his arm around Lyra.

“Huh?” gasped Larissa wanting to cry even more. “What are you doing?” she shrieked.

“Getting away from you so I can hug my girlfriend,” Nicky said in an obvious tone of voice.

“G… g… girlfriend… but I thought I was your…” stuttered Larissa tearfully to upset to finish her sentence.

“Too bad,” Lyra replied patronisingly, “because I’m his girlfriend now. You were too busy with Aidan and now he’s mine.” Lyra glared evilly over at Larissa, who was too upset to argue.

“Come on Lyra, let’s go work on our project for Mr. S together and alone,” Nicky suggested. He and Lyra walked off hand in hand to another area of Heaven Academy. Once they had left Larissa quickly turned to face Bonnie.

“You told him didn’t you?” Larissa yelled.

“I didn’t tell Nicky anything, honest,” gasped Bonnie. She felt quite scared, Larissa had never yelled at her like that before.

“Well you were the only one who’s been near him that knew that I thought I still liked Aidan. So why did you tell him for? Just because you don’t have a boyfriend doesn’t mean you have to make sure I don’t too. Cos I don’t like Aidan and now Nicky doesn’t like me either. So now I don’t have a boyfriend either, are you happy?” Larissa cried and ran off. She didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. Bonnie felt offended. She would never do that to Larissa and she had no idea why Larissa would even think she did. Bonnie became angry.

“No one talks to me like that!” mumbled Bonnie to herself. “That’s it! If Laz thinks she can talk to me like that and get away with it she’s got another thing coming,” Bonnie growled.

            Everybody changed seats when they returned to Mr. Shakespeare’s lesson. He became rather angry as he had to rewrite his seating plan, but he did expect this as most people had not seen each other for so long and had thought that they were dead, so their feelings may have changed towards them. When Mr. Shakespeare rewrote his seating plan it looked like this:

				Mr.	Shakespeare
Luke	Louis		Bonnie	Lola	Toby	Fred		Lyra	Nicky
Caleb	Woody		Samantha	Shada	Charlie	Larissa		Bert	Ariel

Before the class had to perform their speeches about the topic of a past event Mr. S made them do a task which he usually did once a day. He read out one of his sonnets and the class had to guess which sonnet he was reading. He recited:

“Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain,
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even,
Doth half that glory to the sober west,
As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
O! let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.”

“That’s sonnet one hundred and thirty two sir,” Bert announced raising his hand.

“Very good Bert, now can anyone tell me which of my many sonnets has been questioned as to whether it is a sonnet at all?” Mr. S asked his class.

“That would be sonnet one, two, six, sir,” Ariel announced. Larissa quickly turned and glared at her, as she knew the answer and had her hand up first, Ariel had just shouted the answer out. And Ariel knew that Larissa knew the answer. This was unlike Ariel to be so mean and shout the answer out. After he congratulated Ariel for her perfect answer, Mr. S cleared his throat and then asked everyone to perform their speech to the class that they had prepared. Some people’s went better than others. Mr. Shakespeare graded them on their ability to speak in front of the class and stuck a chart up on the wall of how well everybody had done:

Louis & Luke	A J
Caleb & Woody	A J
Shada & Samantha	A L
Lola & Toby	B K
Charlie & Fred	B L
Lyra & Nicky	C K
Bert & Ariel	C L
Bonnie & Larissa	C L

If graded with a happy face they had done well, but with a sad face they had not done well and grade with a straight face meant that they hadn’t done very well, but they hadn’t done very badly either. Charlie and Fred were quite surprised by their grade as they weren’t speaking to each other – it wasn’t the worst in the class. But Bert felt embarrassed at his and Ariel’s bad grade. He never meant to have fallen out with Ariel. And he had been so worried about his argument with Ariel that he messed up on the magic that he was performing, which made him feel stupid. But receiving this bad grade only made Bert more determined to do better in the magic show that he, Ariel and the others were going to do.

Mr. Shakespeare then gave his class a quiet activity to do, while he continued reading over a play he had recently been given by Mr. Cartwheel, Aladdin. Bonnie, even more furious with Larissa about their grade, began to spread the worst rumours that she could think of about Larissa around to everyone in the classroom. Bonnie tore a corner off piece of paper; she scribbled something down, folded it up and passed it down her table. Then she leant across her table to Louis to tell him another rumour. Towards the end of the lesson everyone had heard at least one of the many rumours that Bonnie was spreading. “Laz!” Ariel gasped, feeling hurt. “How dare you!”

“What ?” shrieked Larissa. “What did I do?”

“You know exactly what you did. And all these times I stuck up for you,” Ariel snapped. Larissa became really upset. She didn’t know what she had done to Ariel to make her hate her so much.

Once all of the work they had been doing was collected, Mr. Shakespeare ended the lesson and let them go. He was more eager than usual to get away. Caleb and Woody noticed this and after they had left the classroom, hid outside the window to spy on their teacher.

Mr. Shakespeare had asked Larissa to stay behind at the end of the lesson. “On your grade earlier, I was being generous. I could have given you a much lower grade than I did,” Mr. Shakespeare told her.

“I know sir,” she replied sadly. “I’m sorry.”

“I was right though, wasn’t I?” he smiled cheerfully to himself.

“With what?” asked Larissa worriedly.

“With Lyra,” he replied. She looked down awkwardly, hoping that he’d let her leave soon. “If you’re Romeo and Juliet in real life, then you’re Romeo and Juliet in death.”

“Really?” gasped Larissa.

“No… I just wanted to cheer you up,” Mr. Shakespeare added sadly.

“Oh, thanks,” she said sarcastically and walked out of the classroom.

            Meanwhile Caleb and Woody had explained to Caleb’s girlfriend Gertrude, Gertrude’s sister Arwen (who were in Mr. Cartwheel’s class), Charlie, Shada and Samantha their theory that Mr. Shakespeare was acting different. Even though Charlie, Shada and Samantha didn’t know what Mr. Shakespeare was like before, they were more than willing to help them spy on him. Suddenly, Caleb’s Mum came down the corridor. “Caleb, sweetie, I thought I’d find you here. I hope your day was okay,” she said as she neatened up his hair.

“Mum, you’re embarrassing me,” blushed Caleb, trying to scruff his hair back up.

“Now, now, tuck your shirt in. I’m here to speak to your father; do you know if he is still in his room?”

“Sorry Ms. Winsor, he just left,” Gertrude informed her. (Winsor was Caleb’s Mum’s maiden name, which she had changed after her and Mr. Cartwheel had had a divorce).

“Oh thank you. I’ll just see if I can find him. I’ll see you later,” Caleb’s Mum smiled as she walked off. At the same time Mr. Shakespeare walked out of his classroom and down the corridor in the opposite direction.

“New plan,” Caleb said. “You three follow Mr. S,” he whispered pointing at Charlie, Shada and Samantha. “We’ll follow my Mum.” Sneakily Charlie, Shada and Samantha snuck off in the direction that Mr. S headed in; being careful not to get caught, while Caleb, Woody, Gertrude and Arwen crept behind Caleb’s Mum as she turned off down the end of the corridor and up the next staircase.

            After lesson no one wanted to talk to Larissa anymore. They had all stormed off and left her. Slowly and sadly Larissa wandered into the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby. She glanced around the room and saw that Fred was all alone on his first day in heaven. So she decided to sit next to him and keep him company. “Why are you sitting next to me?” he asked her grumpily, as he was certain that she was only there to be mean to him.

“You don’t hate me too do you?” she sobbed.

“No, but I thought you’d hate me,” Fred told her. Larissa shook her head. “Why not, everyone else does?”

“I don’t hate you. I don’t think you did anything wrong.”

“What?” said Fred surprised. “It’s Larissa isn’t it?” She nodded. “The one Bonnie’s being spreading the rumours about…?” Larissa nodded again.

“Why?” she asked miserably. “What have you heard?”

“That you were secretly an Art, you used to give Frandadis fruits to non-Arians and that you were only pretending to be going out with Nicky and pretending to be friends with Ariel because you like Bert,” he told her.

“Great!” she said sarcastically. “There’s more than I thought. No wonder everyone hates me. The only one I’ve heard is that I used a spell to change the way everyone acted while giving the speech to Mr. S and changed everyone’s grades.”

“You did what?” Fred said angrily.

“I didn’t,” cried Larissa. “I didn’t do any of those things. Bonnie made everything up.”

“I thought so,” Fred smiled. “I was only playing. I didn’t think you were an Art anyway – yuck, all Arts are traitors.”

“I remember you were in Art once. It was the first day I met you…” Larissa remembered.

“I was never in Art, you must have mistaken me for someone else,” he told her. “And why are you talking to me? I murdered your friends, why don’t you think I’ve done anything wrong?”

“I think there’s a reason,” she whispered.

“Sorry Larissa, but I’ve already admitted to doing it. It was me, the whole thing was me. I’m a monster,” Fred sighed sadly.

“No… you’re not,” she whispered. “I know something you should know…” Larissa moved closer to Fred and began to whisper to him, so that nobody else could hear.

            At the same time Charlie, Shada and Samantha were discovering what Mr. S was up to. They had followed him to the end of the corridor, but he almost spotted them when he went outside into the quad. It was Charlie’s idea to stay hidden for a while before continuing to follow him. “What if we get lost?” Samantha asked worriedly realising how big the building was.

“We can ask William Shakespeare for directions. And if he catches us, we’ll just say we got lost,” Charlie told the girls.

“Good plan,” Shada grinned. “But what happens if we lose William Shakespeare and ourselves?”

“Then we move onto plan b,” hesitated Charlie.

“What’s plan b?” she asked. Charlie shrugged.

“I haven’t got that far in the plan yet.”

Shada sighed. “Must I think of everything?” She giggled at him.

“You were always the clever one,” he told her. Shada blushed. After they had discussed what they were going to do Charlie, Shada and Samantha continued their search for Mr. S. They crossed through the quad and passed the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby; Samantha peered inside. She gasped and tugged on Shada’s jumper.

“What is it?” Shada asked immediately. Samantha couldn’t speak, but she pointed inside the lobby. “No,” Shada gasped. “She wouldn’t…”

“What’s wrong?” asked Charlie after he had turned around and noticed that the girls were standing by the door. He looked in. “Is that your friend Larissa, talking to… Fred?” he asked worriedly as he saw Larissa and Fred sitting really close and looking like they were having a good time.

“She’s not exactly our friend now,” Samantha told him.

“Not now we know she used to give Frandadis fruits to non-Arians and that she was ashamed to be an Art,” retorted Shada. “Traitor!”

“Double traitor,” said Charlie under his breath. After hearing what sounded like Mr. S’ voice, the three of them scurried off to see where he was going.

            “So I was a genie… and I could grant wishes…” Fred paused as he tried to take it all in. Larissa nodded at him excitedly.

“Bert even told the story the other night, but changed everyone’s name. He called you Ryan,” she giggled at the silly idea of Fred being called Ryan. “It was so obvious to me, because I was there when it happened. He erased all of your memories, but he forgot that I walked home with you, him and Ariel so he never erased my memory,” Larissa explained as clearly as she could. She stared for a while at Fred’s confused expression. “Haven’t you ever wondered why you lived with Joe and his parents? Or what school you went to before Crooked Burrow School?” Fred slowly nodded. “Fred Brooks, you are a genie.”

“It all makes perfect sense…” whispered Fred. “And all of that power I had inside of me, from being a genie, that I didn’t know about… made my emotions go to the extreme…? That’s why I killed so many people when I was angry…?”

Larissa nodded again. “…And jealous,” she added. “And when Bert killed Joe because he was the King of Magic, he had more power than he realised and when he was angry he… well, you know the rest,” Larissa explained.

“How did you know about the King of Magic?” he asked her curiously. “I thought I was the only person that Bert told.” Larissa looked away quickly; she didn’t want Fred to get her into trouble for everything that she knew. Fred soon forgot about it as he continued to think about everything Larissa had just told him. “Bert and Joe always told me that I was in a car crash and my parents died. They said I suffered from amnesia and couldn’t remember it, or most of my childhood. But that Joe was my half-brother or something, because my Dad had had an affair with his Mum,” Fred said slowly and his confused expression gradually faded and he became serious. “They lied to me… they kept half of my life from me… why would they do that…?”

“I’m sorry Fred,” Larissa said softly, “I thought you had the right to know.” They sat in silence for a while as Fred pieced everything that Larissa had just told him together.

“Thanks,” Fred said eventually. Larissa looked at him and smiled. “You told me the truth, you were the only one who told me the truth,” he said slowly.

 “Wanna go watch the magic show?” she asked randomly.

“With everyone who hates us?” he asked confused.

She shrugged. “I don’t know… I just thought that almost everyone’ll be there, and we don’t have to talk to anyone and I, well, I-” babbled Larissa.

“You don’t want to go on your own and you thought I’d go with you,” Fred sighed. Larissa looked away worriedly. “Come on then,” he smirked. The two of them left the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby and made their way to the Drama Hall, where Bert and his friends were setting up the magic show.

            Robin dragged a long table onto the centre of the stage, then began piling beakers up and placing them on all four corners of the table. Ariel was sitting on a chair reading through the order of the magic that they were going to perform. Woody, Caleb and Gertrude arrived not long after and began to prepare their magic. A squeaking sound in the distance soon became closer. The door edged open and in came a small wheelbarrow. “Bert!” Robin gasped with relief. “It’s about time. People will be coming in any second.” Bert continued to push the wheelbarrow and forced it upon the stage.

“That should be enough Frandadis fruits to last for three magic shows,” Bert joked. When Ariel saw Bert she quickly put down the pieces of paper that she was reading and ran over to him.

“Bert,” Ariel cried. “I’m sorry I shouted at you. I really, really am. Will you ever forgive me?”

“Of course I forgive you,” smiled Bert relieved that Ariel wasn’t mad at him anymore. Ariel gave him a hug, which he was very pleased about. He continued to help get the stage ready for the magic show, but he could see that Ariel was still sad. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I just can’t believe that Larissa would pretend to be my friend, for all this time,” she sobbed. “She never liked me; she only wanted to get closer to you.”

            The audience was piling into the Drama Hall. The huge red curtain on the front of the stage was closed. The audience were all talking amongst themselves, excited about what they were about to see. Shada, Charlie and Samantha had followed William Shakespeare across half of Heaven Academy. He had finally arrived at the Drama Hall and took an aisle seat in the audience. Samantha, Charlie and Shada crept past him and sat a couple of rows behind to spy on him, just in case he did anything that looked suspicious. While they were waiting for the performance to start Ms. Harris came in and sat beside William Shakespeare. “Do either of you two feel a little bit scared when Ms. Harris is around?” Shada asked her friends.

“I do,” replied Samantha quietly.

“Me too,” agreed Charlie. “If we were avoiding her in real life, how come everyone seems calm around her now?”

“Maybe because we are already dead, and she can’t harm us,” Shada suggested. Just then Arwen ran over to them.

“Did you have any luck following Mr. S?” Arwen asked them.

“We followed him all of the way here,” Charlie informed her. “But he hasn’t done anything.”

“Until now,” Samantha said alarmingly. “He’s talking to Ms. Harris.”

            Meanwhile, behind the red curtain Bert, Ariel, Caleb, Woody, Gertrude and Robin were getting ready for the magic show. “We need a name,” Gertrude announced bossily. “No one will remember who we are if we don’t have a name.”

“What’s wrong with just Magic Show?” Woody asked confusedly.

“No, that’s not intellectual enough, we need something catchy that people will remember,” she told him.

“What’s wrong with an Arian Show?” asked Robin, after thinking hard and not being able to come up with anything else. While they argued over the name of their performance Ariel had peeped out through the curtain.

“Bert, I don’t think we should do the magic show,” Ariel told him nervously. “I feel an evil presence.” At that moment Bert made his way over to the curtain and glanced out.

“It’s just nerves. Everything will be fine,” Bert reassured her.

“Hmm,” she replied. “Where have I heard that before?” she said sarcastically. Bert took another look through the curtain out at the audience. There were hundreds of rows of seats with at least fifty people on each row. There were spotlights moving along the audience. He spotted Fred. “What’s he doing here?” raged Bert.

“Who?” Caleb asked walking towards the curtain to peer out.

“Fred,” replied Bert angrily. “What does he think he’s playing at? If he dares to try anything I’ll, I’ll-”

“Kill him,” joked Gertrude.

“Har, har, very funny,” Bert said sarcastically. “I’ll lock him up in a cell for life. This is really important to me.”

“It’s important to us too,” Ariel told him. Bert took one final look out into the audience before he started the show. ‘I hope that Greatgramps is here. I really want him to see my magic skills,’ Bert thought to himself.

Once everyone was ready, Woody opened the curtain and Bert took centre stage. “Good afternoon and welcome to the first of what we hope are many Arian Magic Shows,” Bert announced. “We will be performing several magic tricks as well as a grand finale involving all six of us, which has never been attempted before.” The audience applauded and the magic began. First up were Robin and Ariel. Whilst standing on ladders and by using Frandadis fruits, Robin and Ariel used a giant see through bowl, filled with water, and began cutting up, drooping in and squeezing Frandadis fruits into it. Robin controlled the movement of the juices as they mixed into the water. Once all of the fruits had been put into the water Ariel and Robin were making the juices form different shapes and patterns. The audience gasped excitedly and applauded them. Then Robin turned some of the juices into the shape of a person, at the same time as Ariel made some of the juices turn into a rabbit. Laughter and applause filled the room as the rabbit gave the person a piggy back ride around the bowl. Next they made the person and the rabbit join together to create a giant rocket and it zoomed out of the bowl, where it exploded into a firework display. The audience were up on their feet. Bert was very impressed with them. Ariel hugged Robin and hopped off over to Bert, who was up next. Robin blushed when Ariel hugged him as he still had a huge crush on her, but was now beginning to see that Ariel probably would never like him back.

Woody and Bert were next up, demonstrating the use of magic in making people falling in love with random objects, where they used Caleb, Gertrude, Ariel and Robin as examples and made them fall in love with ladles, tables and even bouncy balls. Everyone found it highly amusing. Then Bert and Woody turned their friends back to normal.

After Woody and Bert were Caleb and Gertrude. They used their magic to make small objects float around in the air. Then they started to make objects owned by members of the audience disappear and reappear underneath a large bucket that Caleb had placed in the centre of the stage.

            The magic show continued to entertain the audience, but towards the end of the show some of their magic kept going wrong. “What’s going on?” Gertrude whispered worriedly.

“I don’t know,” Bert whispered back as he quickly glanced around the room. “It’s not me.”

“Me either,” said Robin.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Ariel told him.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bert insisted. “Come on we’ve got one more trick left to do.” Bert, Ariel, Robin, Caleb, Woody and Gertrude stood in the centre of the stage. This final piece of magic was a lot more complex. There was a lot of juggling involved, by Woody and Caleb. And Gertrude was riding a unicycle. Ariel was tied to a rotating board while Robin was about to throw daggers towards her. Bert was standing on the top of water in the huge bowl (that Ariel and Robin had been using). His feet were touching the very top of the water, soaking his shoes. He held his hands out and began to whisper a chant. Suddenly, Woody, who was still juggling, rose in the air. At the same time as being lifted into the air Woody whispered a chant that enabled him to concentrate on the bats he was juggling and let them spin around all by themselves. Bert then whispered another chant, which levitated Caleb, who, while juggling, did the same as Woody and let the Frandadis fruits that he was juggling juggle themselves. Bert then did the same to Gertrude, Ariel and Robin. All of them were now in the air. All that was now left was for Bert to walk along the water to the edge and step off the bowl and into the air. The audience watched with wide mouths. Firmly, Bert took on last step on the water’s surface before stepping out and into the air. But something went wrong. Bert fell. He was no longer standing on the edge of the water. He had fell into the giant bowl and was swimming, struggling to keep afloat. Woody, Caleb, Gertrude, Ariel and Robin fell to the ground with a thud! The dagger that Robin had thrown narrowly missed Ariel’s head as she had to quickly move her head to dodge it. The audience gasped with horror. Embarrassed, Caleb and Woody drew the large red curtain closed, before putting up the ladder on the side of the huge bowl of water and helping Bert out. Some of the displeased audience members got up and began to leave.

“Bert!” Ariel cried as Caleb helped him down the ladder. “What happened? Are you alright?” Bert sat down beside her and coughed, as he had swallowed some of the water from the bowl. “That wasn’t me,” Bert told them. “Someone was preventing me from doing the trick. I could feel it.”

“I told you I felt an evil presence,” replied Ariel as she sat at his side. Robin quickly cast a spell to dry Bert’s clothes as Woody ran to find him a towel.

            A few minutes passed and the audience could see that the show was not going to continue, so most people who did not know Bert, Ariel, Robin, Woody, Caleb and Gertrude left the Drama Hall. The six friends slowly made their way out from behind the curtain to see how many people were left – if any. Joe, a good friend of Bert’s, rushed over to see him. “Bert,” gasped Joe. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Bert replied calmly. Katie, who was Joe’s girlfriend, was by Joe’s side.

“I didn’t think you ever got magic wrong,” Katie said amazedly.

“I don’t,” Bert said firmly. “And I didn’t. Someone was using magic to prevent me from doing the trick.”

“How do you know?” Katie asked interestedly, wanting Bert to prove himself, as she thought that it was just an excuse.

“There was a great force on my body. I felt it for a while, but it got stronger and stronger,” Bert said disappointedly. “I can’t believe someone was powerful enough to-” He stopped mid sentence and glanced over into the audience. He saw Fred looking at him. “You!” Bert yelled pointing at Fred. “You did this to me, didn’t you?” Fred walked towards him, followed closely by Larissa. Bert pushed past people to make his way to Fred. Ariel, Joe and Katie followed him. “You,” Bert said again. “You did this to me Fred Brooks.”

“I did nothing of the sort,” shouted Fred back sincerely.

“Prove your innocence,” Bert demanded.

“How can he?” Larissa squeaked.

“Well then he’s guilty,” replied Bert nastily.

“Have you never heard of innocent until proven guilty?” Fred raged.

“I need no proof. Fred, you are guilty!”

“I am not. I didn’t do it!” yelled Fred.

“Liar!” Bert snapped.

“No you’re the liar,” Fred shouted back. “And you erased my memory of me being a genie.”

“Genie?” Bert frowned. “What on heaven are you talking about?”

“I was a genie. I could grant wishes. And when I was freed from my lamp you erased my memory. Confess.”

“I have nothing to confess to,” said Bert proudly.

“Yes you do,” Larissa said quite loudly. She quickly stopped speaking as she realised that she had just answered back to Bert.

“I am sorry Larissa, but Fred must have manipulated you into believing him, like he did to everyone else,” Bert told her sympathetically.

“He didn’t. And he didn’t ruin your magic show; he was with me the whole time. And he was a genie,” Larissa cried. “You said-”

“Larissa!” Ariel shouted. “Stop trying to trick Bert into believing you. It won’t work. You’ll never steal Bert away from me.”

“I wasn’t trying to,” retorted Larissa. “I have no interest in your boyfriend!”

“Liar, Bonnie told me the truth,” Ariel said harshly.

“This Bonnie girl’s the liar. I’m telling the truth,” Fred yelled.

“Yeah!” agreed Larissa defensively.

“Fred I hate you. You embarrassed me in front of everyone,” explained Bert in rage.

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Fred stated and stormed off.

“Should I go after him?” Joe asked.

“No,” Larissa said suddenly. “I will.” And she ran off after him. Joe tried to stop her, but Bert stopped him.

“What good will that do?” Joe asked confusedly feeling that Bert had let Fred off lightly. Bert just ignored him.

“If Fred wasn’t dead I… I’d…” Bert sighed with frustration and sat himself down on a chair.

“Bert, you are alright, aren’t you?” Ariel asked caringly as she sat on his lap. Bert nodded slowly.

“I can’t believe he’d lie so intensely in front of everyone. And be so, so, so manipulative. I used to trust him,” Bert said disappointed with himself.

“We all did,” Ariel reminded him.

            Soon the whole of the Drama Hall emptied. Some of the chairs were left upturned and a few sweet wrappers lay screwed up on the floor. Bert was sat on his own on the edge of the stage tapping his heels against the stage. He sighed a sad sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. Just then the side door swung open. It was Albertus. Albertus swept through the door and sat himself down beside Bert. “Greatgramps,” Bert whispered in disbelief. “You came?”

“Yes Bert, I did,” Albertus replied.

“When I fell it wasn’t my fault-” Bert began.

“Excuses, excuses… what is a once King of Magic, like yourself, doing making up feeble excuses such as that?” Albertus shook his head. Bert looked away ashamed felling as though maybe it was his entire fault and that he was only blaming Fred because he was afraid of failure.

“Greatgramps, I can explain,” Bert began sadly.

“There is no need to Bert. Your mother was my least favourite grandchild, and you were my least favourite great grandchild,” Albertus told Bert insensitively. Bert looked at him feeling hurt. “I always knew you were a failure.” And with that Albertus left. Bert became angry. He knew that he wasn’t a failure. He just needed to prove himself to Albertus. He also knew that someone was preventing him from performing magic, and he was certain he knew who it was – Fred. Now if he got Fred out of the way he would be sure to do the trick properly without fail, in front of thousands.

            After she had walked with Fred back to the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby, Larissa nervously went back to her room. She was worried how many people had heard about what had happened between Bert and Fred after the magic show and how many people were still mad at her for Bonnie’s lies. She opened the door and peered around the corner. To her surprise Ariel smiled at her. “Hi Larissa,” Ariel said as Larissa came into the room. Larissa stared awkwardly around the room. It was almost full. Every bed was taken, apart from the bunk above hers; she was used to the room being emptier. Everyone was staring at her.

“Hi,” she managed to say back as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

“I’m sorry about Fred, Laz,” Shada said. “You didn’t know he was good at manipulating people did you? You died before his manipulation began.” Larissa looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t warn you Larissa. Forgive me?” asked Ariel.

“Warn me?” Larissa replied confusedly. “About what?”

“How Fred manipulates people so easily, before he stabs them in the back,” Elly told her, “literally.”

“But Fred didn’t manipulate me. He didn’t do it,” replied Larissa hotly.

“I’m sorry Laz, but he did,” Ariel said kind-heartedly.

“No he didn’t,” she snapped. “Just because he killed you all doesn’t mean you have to pick on him all of the time.” Everyone frowned at Larissa. “He’s not a bad guy and he did not do it!”

“Laz, just give it up. He used you; he’s not your friend. You have none,” Lyra laughed evilly. “And don’t forget, even Nicky doesn’t like you anymore. He’s mine and there is nothing you can do about it!”

“I hate you,” she shouted back.

“Why, because I’m more pretty, smart, funny, talented, I’m better at magic than you and because Nicky’s in love with me,” smiled Lyra nastily rubbing it in Larissa face.

“He’s not in love with you,” Lola sighed at Lyra.

“Yes he is. He told me so.” Lyra grinned winding Larissa up as much as possible.

“Wow!” gasped Lara.

“Lyra, you’re lucky you’re already dead, or I’d kill you,” said Larissa sweetly.

“Ooow, I’m sooo scared,” Lyra sang walking closer towards Larissa. “What are you gonna do?”

Larissa stood up and glared at Lyra as she clenched her fists. “Nothing, because you’re already dead,” Larissa shouted back. “At least not until I learn the spell to kill a ghost.”

“There is no such spell,” announced Bonnie trying to sound clever.

“Well when they invent that potion I’ll use it on you,” Larissa yelled pointing at Lyra.

“Laz, why are you being so mean?” Samantha cried.

“She’s been taking mean lessons from Fred,” Ariel told her.

“Have not!” Larissa yelled.

“Have too!” shouted Ariel back. “And if you haven’t got anything nice to say then you should leave!”

“This was my room before it was yours, you can’t kick me out!”

“Leave!” With a slam of the door Larissa was gone.

            Thudding echoed in the outdoor games area. “Charlie, pass it to me!” Alan shouted.

“Charlie, I’m open!” yelled Harry. Charlie quickly bounce-passed the basketball to Alan, but as he did Luke swiped it out of Alan’s reach.

“Louis – catch!” called Luke as he threw the ball overhead. Louis caught the ball and threw it towards the basket. It bounced off the backboard and flew into the net.

“Yes!” Pete cheered. “That’s six – four to us!”

“Only cos we let you score that basket,” Harry joked. Harry was on Alan and Charlie’s team, while Luke, Louis and Pete were on the other. They were playing basketball just like old times.

“Nah, we beat you fair and square,” Luke told him.

“Come on,” Pete said. “We’ve got a few minutes before we should be back.”

“Yeah,” said Alan. “Mr. Cartwheel gave us a tonne of homework.”

“That’s odd,” Louis told them, “Mr. S didn’t give us any homework.”

“Really?” Harry gasped.

“He usually gives out tonnes of homework. Why does he forget to the second I move out of his class?” complained Alan. “Instead I’ve got even more homework that I can remember.” The conversation soon died and the boys continued their game. Charlie felt the sensation that he was being watched and quickly looked around. Then he noticed someone sitting on a bench. “Two more points Charlie!” Alan cheered. “Charlie?” Alan quickly turned around. Charlie had wandered over to the bench where someone was sitting.

“Fred isn’t the guy you think he is,” Charlie told Larissa, who was sat on the edge of the bench and had been watching the boys play for some time.

“That’s not true,” Larissa sniffed.

“He was only using you to get back at Bert,” he said quietly.

“He wasn’t. Where is he?” asked Larissa worriedly.

“Bert said he was taking care of him,” he replied simply. Larissa knew what Charlie meant by that. He meant that Bert was going to lock Fred up in the dungeon. Bert was good friends with Master Dyke who guarded that main entrance and who owned all of the keys to all of the rooms in the whole of Heaven Academy. She quickly got up and went to find Bert.

“Charlie!” Alan called.

“Come on! It’s a draw. We just need one more basket to win,” shouted Harry. Charlie then got up and ran over to finish their game.

            All was silent down the narrow passageway near the main entrance to Heaven Academy. A tall shadowy figure crept out of the side doorway and began walking down the corridor. It was dark. There was a small amount of light coming from the main corridor up ahead. Small footsteps tapped closer towards him. He swept down the nearest corridor and kept his head low. The footsteps caught up with him. They got closer and closer. He picked up his pace as he closed in on the corridors end. “I know what you’ve done,” the voice said. He turned around quickly to see who had followed him. “You won’t get away with it.”

“Larissa!” Bert gasped. “What are you doing in this part of the academy? And what are you doing sneaking up on me?” he hissed. As if in fear of getting caught he dragged Larissa into another room, which no one was using. After double checking that no one had followed them he closed the door behind them and case a spell to create a small light, just bright enough for them to see each other. “What is the meaning of this?”

“You imprisoned Fred, when he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Larissa told him. “How would you like it if I imprisoned you for no reason?”

“There is a reason, he prevented me from doing that trick, he killed all of those innocent people and-” began Bert.

“But Bert, you said it yourself Mr. Foote would have killed them all anyway. And I think I know why Fred did kill all of the people that he killed,” interrupted Larissa as she tried to explain what she knew.

“No. Fred admitted to the crime, I’m sorry to tell you but he deserves his punishment. Master Dyke wasn’t on duty, so I’ve had to borrow the key to the dungeon until I see him,” explained Bert.

“You mean you stole it.”

“Stole is such a harsh word… now why don’t you scurry off to bed and leave me to deal with this.”

“I can’t,” Larissa mumbled. Bert looked at her, puzzled. “Ariel kicked me out because I had an argument with her and Lyra.”

“I’ll sort it out,” he reassured her. “Come with me.” Bert led Larissa back down the narrow corridor and to her room, where he spoke to Ariel about forgiving Larissa.

“Please…” Bert begged. “She’s doesn’t realise that she’s been manipulated by Fred. She didn’t mean whatever she said to you.” Bert smiled sweetly at Ariel. Ariel sighed, she couldn’t resist Bert’s smile.

“Okay,” said Ariel giving in. “But I’m only doing this for you.”

“Thank you,” he said kissing her, before leaving the girls to go to bed himself, as it was getting very late.

            The night was still. Shada, Samantha, Lyra, Lola and Lara seemed to settle down quite well for their first day in heaven. In fact, it felt like they had been there a lot longer. “I’ve had a dream!” shouted Bonnie hyper waking everyone up.

“What’s so special about that?” grumbled Lyra as she awoke from sleep at half five in the morning.

“She hasn’t had a dream since before she died,” explained Larissa. “At least that’s what she says.” Turning to Bonnie she said, “You may as well tell us now we’re all awake. What was it all about?”

“It was weird,” said Bonnie, shaking at the memory of it. “It went something like this:

“Aaah,” groaned Dannie, lying back in the sun. “This is more like it!” He and his friends were on holiday, in Germany. They were visiting their pen pals in Meissen, near Dresden for the second time.

Suddenly a long shadow fell across Dannie. “Oy, get up,” the person who belonged to the shadow demanded. It was Tim, the next tallest from Dannie in the group of friends.

“Why?” questioned Dannie lazily, squinting up at Tim.

“The train’s about to leave; that’s why!” was the sharp reply.

“Huh!” was all Dannie could manage.

            The nine of them sat in a carriage upstairs (the trains were all double-deckered in Germany) and talked about how they were getting on with their host-families.  “Thea’s family is great, still,” remarked Shada. “Even though her Mama still doesn’t speak any English whatsoever. Not that it matters. What about you guys?”

“Oh, Jeanette’s good enough at English,” stated Orora. “We get along.”

The rest of them agreed that they weren’t having too many problems with language. Soon the train stopped. They were at their destination! They all got off and smiled in relief. The name of the station they were now at was “Geszlebnil” and this was the station that their friends Digby, Alice and Florence would meet them at, to take them around the village of Geszlebnil. Digby, Alice and Florence were staying in a hotel there, because Digby was scared of foreigners, or so he said. Florence had never been abroad and was therefore a little wary of them too. Alice decided to stay with them to keep them out of trouble and make sure they enjoyed themselves. Alice had been to Meissen the year before when the friends (but not Digby and Florence) had visited their pen pals for the first time, and so she knew what Germany was like. But it had been Digby’s idea for them three to stay at a hotel in a small village, where hardly anyone came.

            When the twelve friends had found a park bench (or, to be precise, several park benches) to sit on (or lie on, in the case of Bonnie and Orora), they discussed the previous days, and the journeys they had had.

“This discussion’s getting boring,” Digby complained.

“What do you suggest we do then?” asked Orora, annoyed. She had liked the discussion, because it had given Tim an opportunity to talk for ages. Orora had a big crush on Tim.

“Why, go back to our hotel, of course! There happens to be a person there who I want you all to see…”

With this strange sentence in their minds the nine friends who had just come on the train curiously walked with Digby, Alice and Florence back to their hotel, to find out who this person that Digby wanted them to see was. They climbed up the stairs to the second floor, where Digby knocked on a door.

“Well, well, well, who have we here?” said a high-pitched, snide voice. “If it’s not Larissa, Bonnie, Timothy, Dannie, Timothy Dale, Shada, Orora, Samantha and Toby.”

“Mr. Welly!” they gasped. It was not Mr. Welly, the Deputy Head of Crooked Burrow School, but his son who was just as intimidating and twice as pitiless. “Well, I suppose you’d better all come into my room,” he continued.

“Thanks, Sir,” replied Digby as they all ran in and piled onto the only sofa in the room.

“Ouch, you’re squashing me!” complained Orora as Tim sat on her.

“Blame Mr. Welly Junior,” was Tim’s reply.

Shada was sitting on the floor. “Sir, why are you here in Germany?” she asked curiously.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” said Mr. Welly Jr. sinisterly.

“Uh-oh,” said Samantha to Shada. “This sounds like a mystery to me. Let’s solve it while we’re here in Germany.”

“Okay,” Shada whispered back, her face brightening up. She was glad that they now had something to do here, because she was missing Charlie badly and it would take her mind off it.

            “Will you stay for tea?” Mr. Welly asked them kindly. He was a very changeable character; one minute he could be bossy and nasty, the next he could be sickly sweet.

“Erm… yeah, I suppose,” Tiny Tim spoke for the whole group. “We’ve got sandwiches and stuff.”

“Yeah,” agreed Shada. “I’ve got Deutsches Brot again. YUK!”

“You can have some of my sandwiches, I’ve got too many.” Sam told her.

“Thanks,” smiled Shada. “But I’ll just have one of yours, or Bonnie will be cross with you for not eating enough.”

Bonnie heard her name in the sentence. “What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing, nothing,” the girls lied.

            After tea which they ate in Mr. Welly’s hotel room, the children were told by Mr. Welly to wait there for a moment. Suddenly, he brought out a whiteboard from a different room and said “Now everyone, pick a person who can draw this whiteboard on the whiteboard.” The whiteboard was a triangular shape, and at each corner there was an orange rectangular sticker. “Now, the tricky thing is, you have to get it all to scale, and you also have to draw what’s on the whiteboard on the whiteboard. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” they replied. After a bit of discussion Tim was chosen to draw the whiteboard on the whiteboard. His efforts looked like this:

“Wow, really great Tim,” said Orora. “But you forgot something. Mr. Welly said to draw what’s on the whiteboard on the whiteboard. Now the triangle that you’ve drawn is on the whiteboard, so you have to draw that to scale too. Do you get it?”

“Oh, great!” moaned Tim. “So whenever you draw a new triangle, you have to draw that triangle inside the triangle too?”

“Yes,” replied Mr. Welly seriously. “Carry on, you’re doing well.”

Tim carried on drawing triangles inside triangles and the others watched him, telling him if he should rub out a line and do it again or not. The only one who seemed at all bored of this was Digby, who had been quite nervous and twitchy the whole time they had been in Mr. Welly’s hotel room. Digby looked around, and saw, to his shock, that Mr. Welly had gone. “Oh no!” he thought. “I’m going to have to go after him.” He stealthily crept up so nobody noticed that he was going and tiptoed towards the door. Suddenly, Dannie sneezed and everyone looked round at him. Digby hoped no one had seen that he wasn’t there anymore, or that Mr. Welly had vanished. Digby opened the door and sneaked out, shutting it gently behind him. “Now which way would he have gone?” he wondered to himself. He decided that he might have gone left, and so followed the hotel corridor left. Out of a window Digby saw a long wide black tube snaking across the hotel garden lawn, from one side to the other. He wondered what it was for, but he had other more urgent matters to attend to – the others didn’t know this, but Mr. Welly was a murderer!

            “Oh come on Tim you’re taking ages!” moaned Alice.

“Fine then, you finish it!” Tim shouted at her. Alice snatched the whiteboard pens from him and began to draw the next triangle inside the others. Toby stood up and stretched. “We’ve been here ages,” he stated.

“Yes Toby, we know that,” nodded Bonnie, humouring him.

“And we’re still here,” Toby continued.

“Yes Toby,” said Bonnie.

“Will you shut up?” Toby demanded. “I’m trying to think.”
”All hail the great thinker,” Larissa sarcastically muttered. She’d had enough shouting and arguing from her parents at home without more here. She’d come for a holiday, not home re-lived.

“Where’s Digby?” Toby suddenly questioned.

“I’ve no idea,” said Bonnie, in a huff.

“I think he just went to the bathroom or something, I saw he wasn’t sitting behind us when Dannie sneezed,” Samantha said, quite loudly for her.

“Oh.” Toby was dumbfounded. He had never heard Sam raise her voice before.

            Meanwhile, Digby had found Mr. Welly scurrying down the corridor that led to the lift. Digby stalked him, until he watched Mr. Welly jump into the lift and press the ‘B’ button for ‘basement’. Then Digby ran down the nearby stairs all the way to the basement. Mr. Welly was just getting out of the lift, and didn’t see Digby watching him from around the corner of the stairs. Mr. Welly hurried around a few corners and Digby followed him at a distance. Fortunately he was not out of breath from running down three flights of stairs, but he had been trained enough as a detective not to be out of breath from just that. Mr. Welly darted through an open door and shut it just before Digby reached it. There was a window with pieces of wire crossed inside. This made whatever the windows were looking into (like a room) harder to break into. It also made them look like clear squared paper in Maths books. At school they used this sort of glass in Maths room windows, and the teachers sometimes did their lessons on the windows, with whiteboard markers.

            Speaking of whiteboard markers, the children had become bored from drawing silly triangles inside triangles and had realised that Mr. Welly was also not there, along with Digby. “They can’t have just vanished,” Tiny Tim said matter-of-factly. “They must have just gone out.”

“Gone out? But what happens to us? We can’t draw more triangles, it already looks like a blob in the middle!” exclaimed Florence.

“Yeah. Let’s just chill,” said Orora. “We can forget the stupid triangles. In fact, Tim, pass me the whiteboard.” Tim passed it her, looking worried. He didn’t trust Orora, who knew what she might do when she was bored? She took it outside onto the balcony, and chucked it over, into the grass.

“What was that for?” Tim cried. He had got quite fond of the triangles he had drawn.

            Digby cautiously peered through the squared glass into the room. Inside were lots of people carrying cardboard boxes and crates. It looked like a factory! “A factory?” Digby wondered. “Inside a hotel? Whatever next?” He saw what was coming next, in the shape of a fist in front of his face. He ducked instinctively. The hand smashed into the window, breaking the glass but not the wire. “Ouch!” yelled the person that the fist belonged to. Digby didn’t look back but ran and ran. He ran up the stairs to the ground floor and along a passageway that he knew led to the garden. He then ran straight out into the garden and into the black pipe thing that he’d seen earlier. He knew that whoever had been about to punch him probably wouldn’t have been as quick as him to climb the stairs and he knew that they hadn’t taken the lift because it made a sound when the doors shut and he hadn’t heard that sound so he guessed that he was safe where he was. For the time being. Then he felt some movement. They were moving the pipe!

            “Let’s go,” said Alice. “Everyone’s bored; we might as well leave.”

“Yep,” Florence agreed. “Come on, everyone!” She started pushing everyone out through the door. They walked along the corridor and looked out of the window. To their surprise they saw a long black tube and out of one end emerged Digby, who then straightened up and started running towards them. A big man appeared from the opposite side of the building and ran straight for Digby. Tim opened the window wide and yelled “Go, Digby!” The others joined in, cheering Digby on. He made it inside first, but the man caught up with him and took hold of him. “What did you think you were doing? He hissed at Digby.

“Ich habe nichts gemacht,” Digby stammered, acting.

“What?” asked the man suspiciously. “You’re English, aren’t you? Well, to prove it…” And with that he punched Digby in the face. “OUCH!” cried Digby.

“There! Now, if you don’t continue to speak in English then I’ll take you to the boss. She speaks German fluently.”

“The boss?” Digby widened his eyes. “Who’s she the boss of, apart from you?”

“Enough questions!” the man barked.

“On the contrary, not enough, my friend,” came a voice from the stairs. It was Tim, and behind him came the other eight. They surrounded the man but obviously did not scare him as he took out a handgun and fired a shot into the air. This was a signal, because more people with the same uniform as the man had on appeared and surrounded the friends. They were dressed in what could be called hotel uniform, but they were more than workers at a hotel. They were part of the Green Hand Gang!

            The friends were all taken to a room and locked in. Eventually a woman marched in through the door after unlocking it with a key velcroed onto her belt and turned to face the children. “You will remain here until we are gone,” she explained precisely. “Then you will never be able to find us again. We work very efficiently, and our work is monitored strictly. Any interferers will be punished, but you will not die…”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that!” laughed Dannie, and the rest joined in. The woman however did not laugh. “…If,” she continued. “…If you are careful. In two minutes a fire will sweep through this building, and you will have to lie here under the smoke which will come in through the ventilation shaft. The room itself is basically fireproof, so you won’t die from burns. Just be careful of the smoke. That is all.” She left silently, locking the door behind her.

“Well, at least we won’t die…” Dannie was the first to break the silence.

“No…” muttered Digby. “But we’ll never get the chance to find out more about the Green Hand Gang.”

“What?” exclaimed Shada. “I’ve heard of that. It was in an Enid Blyton book. An adventure story with Snubby, Diana, Roger and Barney in! I loved that! But the Green Hand Gang didn’t really exist in that. It was just Snubby, playing a mean trick on Roger and Diana’s Great-Uncle Robert.”

“Well this Gang is real enough,” said Digby darkly. “I’ve been following them for months. I traced them to Germany, and to Geszlebnil, and then here to this hotel. Mr. Welly Junior is also in this gang. He killed the previous room occupier of his room.” They all gasped in shock.

“What’s the world coming to?” tutted Bonnie.

“Hopefully not somewhere ruled by the Green Hand Gang!” Toby laughed. “Oooh, my hand is green, I will destroy you!” He was joking about, as usual. But Sam, on the other hand, was being very serious.

“Did that woman say something about the ventilation shaft?” she asked Shada.

“Yeah, that the smoke would come through it in two minutes… half a minute ago.”

“So we still have one and a half minutes left…”

“Sam… you’re surely not thinking…” Shada was left speechless. Sam had ripped off the cover and begun to crawl into the shaft. “It’s not very wide,” she called. “But I think I’ll make it. I’ll get the keys off that woman’s belt, if she’s still around.”

“Hurry then!” said Shada. By now the others had noticed what Sam was doing.

“Wow, isn’t Sam brave?” Laz breathed.

“Yeah,” agreed Bonnie.

            Sam reached the end by wriggling. Just as she got out she noticed flames licking at some curtains nearby. Then she saw the whole picture – fire was everywhere! “I’m coming!” she yelled down the shaft, and then ripped her jacket from around her waist and draped it over the shaft. That would stop smoke from coming through – for a while, anyway, long enough for her to grab the key from the woman – who was passing her at that very moment. She didn’t see Sam lurking behind a nearby chair, and only felt a bit of a tug as Sam pulled off the key. Then Sam ran around to the door and fitted the key into the lock, and turning it before the woman realised what had happened. She then ran the other way, knowing that the smoke would probably choke her if she stayed to sort out the children.

            The children all ran out, following the woman who they could see sprinting down the corridor. She ran out of a fire exit and they all raced out behind her. But the smoke had caught up with them and made it hard to breathe, so they stopped chasing the woman and found a safe spot to have a short rest.

“Phew,” panted Orora, leaning on Tim.

“Phew for dear life,” agreed Toby.

“You lot, stay there, I’m just going to call the police,” Digby ordered. He went off and the others sat outside in silence. Then Sam said slowly “Bonnie, Orora, Toby… don’t you guys have mobile phones on you…?”

See…weird,” finished Bonnie.

“Well I had two weird dreams – beat that!” said Larissa. “And I’m going to tell you them both. The first one was really scary, and went like this:

The Year Elevens were all called into school by Miss Tallbald in the six weeks holiday. As everyone was coming in, Shada met up with her friends Samantha, Bonnie, Larissa, Lizzy, Phoebe and Digby. Phoebe and Lizzy gave Shada, Samantha, Bonnie and Larissa hugs because they hadn’t seen them in ages.

“Where’s my hug?” Digby asked. “Fine, forget me, why don’t you?”

“Don’t be like that,” Larissa insisted. “I’ll give you a hug.”

“See someone likes me,” Digby smiled, hugging Larissa. Just then some of the boys came over. ‘Annie, Tim, Tiny Tim, Lannie, Toby, Drake and Treg all came over to talk.

“Hey girls, and Digby,” ‘Annie waved.

“Hi!” they all replied.

“So how’s everyone?” Tim asked.

“We’re okay, as far as I know,” Shada giggled because she was very hyper after not seeing her friends for so long.

“I was gonna say Bonnie looked a bit upset, but I won’t because she’ll probably hit me,” Drake joked.

“You just did,” Treg pointed out.

“I think you’ll find he realised that,” Lannie snootily pointed out.

“Has anyone been anywhere nice this holiday?” Bonnie asked trying to get the conversation moving.

“I’ve been to France,” Toby began.

“Me too,” Treg butted in.

“I’ve been to Spain,” Drake added.

“And me!” Lannie shouted.

“And me!” shouted Digby, not wanting to feel left out.

“Okay… so Toby ad Treg went to France. Drake, Lannie and Digby went to Spain. Shada, Phoebe, Samantha and me have all been to Wales. Lizzy’s been to Scotland. ‘Annie, Tim and Tiny Tim, have you guys been anywhere?” Bonnie asked.

“Does town count?” Tim asked hopefully.

“No,” Bonnie told him.

“Then no,” came Tim’s disappointed reply.

“Me neither, I’m saving up to go to Germany for work experience and for that trip to Canada for Orora’s eighteenth birthday party,” ‘Annie explained.

“Tiny Tim, you’ve been awfully quiet. Is anything wrong?” Bonnie asked.

“No. I’m fine,” Tiny Tim sighed sadly.

“Larissa’s been quiet too,” Treg said. Larissa blushed.

“Are you okay Lazzie?” Shada asked.

“Yep,” she replied.

“Are you sure?” Shada asked looking rather concerned. Larissa nodded.

            Miss Tallbald got everyone to gather up in the Main Hall on the blue seats. She then put everyone in a seating plan, which they all groaned about. Miss Tallbald was their work experience guider and careers advisor so they were all surprised when she told them that they would be involved in a play. In annoyance she decided to send the majority of red band and several people from blue band home. The rest of the children that were left began complaining as to why they had to stay when many others got to go home and enjoy the remainder of their summer holiday. Every row of the blue seats now had several big gaps, because several people had left. Miss Tallbald explained to all of the children that were left that this play had no script. The only time there would be any type of rehearsal would be with the main characters of each scene. Therefore the only thing that she needed to tell them was what the play was going to be about, so they roughly knew what was going to happen. “We will go over each part once. Then it’s up to you to do the rest. The people playing the main characters that are needed for all rehearsals are Phoebe, Bonnie, Toby, Treg, Zilla, Jay, Drake, Digby and Lannie. Other smaller character parts will also be needed for several scenes. Everyone else will just have to find something else to do unless you’re needed,” Miss Tallbald announced.

            Somewhere off the school site Bonnie, Phoebe, Digby, Treg, Toby and Larissa were getting ready for rehearsal. Larissa had a minor part in the scene. Miss Tallbald had given them their storyline. Several students were watching them to see what was happening and if the play was any good – knowing Miss Tallbald it would be rather dull and boring. All seemed to be going well until Miss Tallbald took a break and decided to go back to school taking all of the students that were watching back with her, all except Shada, Samantha, Lizzy, Tim, Tiny Tim and ‘Annie, who then continued to watch. They thought that the children acting had taken a break, so when Tiny Tim saw Digby hug Larissa for what seemed to him to be no reason he became quite upset and began to walk back to school. This was so sudden and completely unlike Tiny Tim to wander off without telling anyone where he was going, so his friend Tim and ‘Annie followed him.

            After practicing they decided to walk back to school. “You know what; I think that Laz and Digby should go out. They’re perfect,” Phoebe insisted.

“NO!” came Larissa and Digby’s immediate response.

“Go on,” whined Lizzy.

“You might as well. You two flirt enough,” Bonnie added, trying to wind them up.

“No, he –” Larissa started.

“She –” began Digby.

“But,” they both sighed.

“I rest my case,” Phoebe grinned.

            Once everyone had arrived back in school there was another meeting on the blue seats. Miss Tallbald made everyone sit in the seating plan, and then for no reason she changed it. “I will need the star actors at all times. The only time I will ever need someone else is if one more character is needed or for another meeting. There will be no other rehearsals, so if you want them you must organise them yourselves. Now everyone – to lunch!” Miss Tallbald ordered. Everyone disbanded the hall and went to lunch.

            During their lunch break Bonnie, Phoebe, Digby, Treg, Toby and Larissa had decided to rehearse their scene in the play. Shada, Samantha, Lizzy, Tim, Tiny Tim and ‘Annie agreed to watch and tell them whether or not it was good. Near enough straight away Shada and Samantha ran off. They had been told that Miss Tallbald needed to see them about the play. Everyone seemed pleased with how the scene was going on, everyone that is but Tiny Tim. He hated Larissa spending a lot of time with Digby, but it had never come to his attention before. He hadn’t noticed Larissa much before, but she was all he could think about since the school trip to Germany. They didn’t really know each other before, but now they were quite good friends. Tiny Tim had enough and stormed off. His friends seemed worried about him. So Tim and ‘Annie followed him and close behind them was Toby. After they finished the scene Larissa ran off in search of Samantha and Shada.

“Bye!” Larissa called to everyone.

“But –” Treg shouted, although it was too late. Larissa had run off. “I need to talk to you,” he mumbled to himself.

            Everyone met up in the Ask Studio for another meeting and Miss Tallbald’s orders. “Everyone if you need to practice I suggest you find a place and do so now. You all need to get props ready. The two girls that I’ve just been talking to and Larissa, ‘Annie, Tiny Tim and Tim, I have some props for you for the scene you’re in when Treg, Toby, Drake, Lannie and Digby are knights. Shada and Samantha will tell you what to do, so stay behind afterwards. Now everyone, get out of my sight! We only have half an hour till opening, so GO!” Miss Tallbald ordered. Everyone stood up and began to make their way out of the door.

Once everyone but the people Miss Tallbald had asked to stay had gone she handed them all colouring books and pencil crayons. “You don’t need to say anything. Shada and Samantha have taken care of that. You all just need to look interested,” Miss Tallbald explained, shoving colouring books and pencil crayons at them and wandering off. Shada, Samantha and Larissa sat at one side of the room, while ‘Annie, Tiny Tim and Tim sat at the other side of the room.

“Laz,” Shada whispered, so the boys wouldn’t hear. “Did you know Tiny Tim’s been upset today?”

“Really, why?” Larissa asked.

“I don’t know. We’re really worried about him. He won’t talk to me… or Sam,” Shada told her.

“Well, I’ll go and talk to him,” Larissa smiled.

“No.” Samantha stopped Larissa.

“You don’t wanna do that,” Shada warned.

“Why not?” asked Larissa feeling confused.

“I heard ‘Annie say that Tiny Tim’s not talking to you either,” Shada explained.

“How?” puzzled Larissa.

“Because he said Tiny Tim’s not talking to Shada, Samantha or Larissa either,” whispered Samantha, stating the obvious.

“Sam, don’t,” Shada told Samantha off.

“I have an idea,” Larissa smiled. She grabbed a pencil sharpener from the windowsill, and then she picked up several pencil crayons and made her way over to where the boys were sitting.

“Oh no, her ideas aren’t good,” sighed Shada disappointedly.

“Hi,” Larissa began as she sat down in between ‘Annie and Tiny Tim.

“Hi Laz,” ‘Annie sighed.

“Hey,” waved Tim.

“Are you guys all okay?” Larissa asked curiously.

“Yeah, just bored,” complained ‘Annie.

“Colouring in is boring enough, but with broken crayons too,” moaned Tim.

“You don’t have to colour in with broken crayons,” Larissa explained.

“Yeah, we knew that,” panicked ‘Annie feeling stupid.

“We were just testing you,” Tim laughed.

“Right… anyway I’ll sharpen your pencils. It’s not that hard,” Larissa giggled as she collected the boys pencil crayons. She then smiled directly at Tiny Tim, who smiled back. Larissa took their crayons to the other side of the room, where the bin was, next to Samantha and Shada.

“See, I told you he’d ignore you,” whispered Shada to Larissa, trying to show off.

“For your information he didn’t ignore me. He smiled at me,” Larissa told them.

“So…” Samantha began. “What does that prove?”

“It proves that he’s not ignoring me,” Larissa whispered sticking her tongue out at Shada.

“Or does it?” Shada shouted, jumping up.

“Does what?” asked Tim curiously.

“Nothing,” Shada felt very embarrassed, blushed, and then quickly sat back down.

            Before the performance began, the star actors were doing their last rehearsals outside the Staffroom (they really needed to practice after only knowing what to do for a few hours). Larissa was about to go up the stairs towards the Staffroom in order to wish Bonnie good luck when she came across two members of a group that she and her friends had named “Them Lot”. Alice and Florence were running down the stairs, disguised as each other. They told Larissa that they were in disguises because of a war with Zilla, but Larissa didn’t pay much attention, she just carried on up the stairs.

“Phoebe, Digby,” Larissa sang. “Where’s Bonnie?”

“She’s probably gone to her tutor class. We should be going too,” Digby explained.

“Well… good luck you two and tell Bonnie I said good luck too please,” Larissa pleaded.

“We will,” Phoebe smiled hugging Larissa. Then Larissa hugged Digby. Phoebe and Digby made their way to their form rooms. Larissa was about to head for her form room but Treg stopped her.

“Lazzie, I need to talk to you,” Treg called.
“You need to talk to me. Let me guess. You’re going to insult me, make fun of me, start a rumour about me, hit me or…” Larissa thought of the only reasons as to why Treg would ever want to talk to her.

“I’ve been asked to ask you from a secret agent whose identity shall remain a secret, if you are really going out with Digby?” Treg asked.

“NO!” shouted Larissa. “Why?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, coz Tiny Tim thought you were and wanted me to ask you whether…” Treg stopped himself from saying any more.

“Tiny Tim? Whether what? Is he okay?” Larissa was very concerned, but Treg wasn’t talking. He just ran off to his form room after he realised that he had just revealed the identity of the secret person, who he wasn’t supposed to mention. Larissa wanted to know more, but she needed to get to her form room, before getting detention for being late. The form group meeting went surprisingly well considering everyone hated Shada, Larissa and Samantha, and apart from Zilla they were the only ones that had decent roles in the play. Now everyone needed to go to the Ask Studio for the final meeting before the performance. LHE (Shada, Larissa and Samantha’s form) cut through the Hall, they saw loads of people entering the hall and taking their seats.

Miss Tallbald wished everyone good luck, “Everyone, well done for preparing a play in a day. I’m not superstitious so Good Luck. And for all you stupid idiots out there ‘Macbeth’ is only bad luck if you’re doing ‘Macbeth’. So don’t bother saying it.” She turned around to leave the room, but stopped and faced everyone again. “By the way Digby and Larissa, that hug has been turned into a kiss,” she cackled, and left the room. Larissa and Digby looked at each other in shock. People started leaving the room to sit outside in the quad or just to go outside.

“Remember what I said, Larissa,” Treg pointed out as he left to go on stage.

            As the play went on Digby and Larissa didn’t have any time to talk, but by now it was too late. The scene they had been practicing was the final scene, everyone in the play was on stage watching and waiting to see if Digby and Larissa kissed.

A huge sigh of disappointment filled the Hall from the majority of people in the play, who had been looking forward to the kiss, when it didn’t happen, also gasps of relief when the rest of them noticed Larissa backing away.

After everyone had cleared from the Hall Miss Tallbald called everyone who had been involved in the play into the Hall for another meeting. She made everyone sit in the seating plan on the blue seats and then she changed it – again. “I would like to congratulate everyone – well almost everyone,” Miss Tallbald announced, glaring at Larissa. Tim and ‘Annie, who were now sitting in front of Larissa, turned around and smiled at her. “I would also like to say that none of you are going home tonight. You are to go to your form rooms, where you shall spend the night. Your form tutors will look after you. I’m going home, but I’ll be back tomorrow, early in the morning, so don’t even try to escape,” Miss Tallbald warned everybody as she left. People began to make their way out of the Hall. Shada, Samantha and Bonnie came to join Larissa who stayed sitting down (Shada and Bonnie sat in front of Larissa with Tim and ‘Annie. Samantha sat on Larissa’s right). Lizzy, Phoebe, Digby, Lannie, Drake, Toby and Treg came to join everyone.

“Larissa, why did you make Miss Tallbald angry? It’s so unlike you,” Tiny Tim asked in amazement, from sitting behind Larissa (he jumped over the row so he was sitting on the same row).

“A reason.” Larissa blushed. “Anyway annoying Miss Tallbald seemed fun.” Everyone frowned at her. “Only joking!” she giggled.

“Are you guys coming up to tutor?” Lannie asked.

“In a minute, you guys carry on up,” ‘Annie insisted. Lannie, Drake, Toby and Treg left the Hall.

“I don’t wanna go to tutor,” yawned Larissa. “Everyone hated me before I messed up the play, now they’re really gonna hate me.”

“Why don’t we all sleep here, after all its half eleven, and if everyone falls asleep now – no one will know we aren’t there. Shada and Samantha almost look asleep anyway,” Lizzy explained.

“And it’s comfier here,” Phoebe added.

“Laz…why didn’t you kiss Digby?” asked Bonnie curiously.

“Cos,” Larissa rubbed her eyes. “I don’t fancy him; I like…”

“Tell us,” whined Bonnie and Tim.

“Please,” everyone begged.

“No. Maybe tomorrow,” Larissa blushed, smiling at Tiny Tim. ‘Annie, Shada, Tim and Bonnie all looked at each other.

“Ooow!” Bonnie, Shada, Tim and ‘Annie giggled.

“What?” squeaked Larissa.

“Nothing,” they giggled.

            Everyone slept throughout the night. ‘Annie was the first to wake up. He immediately woke Tim up, who woke Shada and Bonnie up, who woke Samantha up. They then woke Lizzy, Phoebe and Digby up. “Why wake us up at six o’ clock in the morning ‘Annie?” yawned a very tired Bonnie.

“Look,” ‘Annie and Tim pointed towards Tiny Tim and Larissa who were still asleep, and had fallen asleep leaning against each other.

“Aaaah!” giggled Phoebe.

“That’s why she didn’t kiss Digby,” added Tim feeling smart. The Hall door slammed closed, but it wasn’t loud enough to wake Tiny Tim or Larissa.

“What are you doing here?” asked Miss Tallbald. “And… is that why she ruined my play?”

“No… they just fell asleep that way,” Tim answered.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Everyone backed Tim up.

“What do you mean, your play?” Digby asked, but Miss Tallbald didn’t answer his question.

“I’ll take your word for it this time. But if I see them two together again, you’ve all had it. Now, I’ve got to go and torture, I mean wake up kids,” Miss Tallbald sniggered, storming out of the Hall.

Hey, dreams are dreams!” finished Laz.

“That was weird,” agreed Bonnie. “But I still like mine better. And what about Nicky?”

“Lyra’s stolen him,” Larissa said.

“I don’t blame her. You didn’t deserve him in the first place,” Ariel told her spitefully.

“And the other dream went like this,” Larissa continued ignoring Ariel’s comment. “It was so creepy I think I’ll whisper it. It reminded me of our real deaths, seeing as we all died near enough around the same time… except some of the people aren’t dead…:

School began as usual that September day. Bonnie was extra excited because she had some fun news. “I’m having a sleepover party and you three are invited,” Bonnie told her friends Shada, Larissa and Samantha. “I’m also inviting Orora, Dannie, Tim, Toby and Tiny Tim.”

Bonnie’s good mood lasted throughout the day, cheering everyone up. This day was a Wednesday and Bonnie’s sleepover was Friday. Her parents were going to be out of town and had given Bonnie permission for her sleepover.

“Not everyone might be able to come,” Larissa reminded Bonnie after school outside the school gates.

“I’m sure they will,” grinned Bonnie.

            The next day everyone who was invited to Bonnie’s sleepover had told Bonnie they could go. Larissa didn’t think that Bonnie’s sleepover was a good idea and decided not to go. But she told Bonnie she could go; this was because Larissa knew that Samantha and Shada wouldn’t go otherwise.

            Friday soon came. Everyone was hyper all day. “Samantha, we can finally settle the fight over who needs to get who back for throwing water,” Orora cheered.

“Oh yeah: you started it!” Samantha yelled.

“No you started it!” Orora shouted back.

“Girls stop arguing and let’s look forward to the sleepover later,” Tim said, trying to make peace.

            The time was now six o’ clock in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Buttons left Bonnie in charge of the house, while they went to visit relatives for the night. Bonnie was looking forward to seeing her closest friends. All of a sudden her mobile phone made a noise. She had received a text message from Larissa saying that she did not want to and would not be attending the sleepover. This made Bonnie feel a little sad, but the sadness soon went away when all of her friends arrived. They all set up sleeping bags knowing full well that they probably wouldn’t sleep – they’d be having too much fun.

            During the sleepover Orora and Samantha started their argument again, but this time it led to the killing of Orora. Everyone gasped in shock as they realised what quiet, shy Samantha had done. Tim was horrified, because he fancied Orora and killed Samantha. Toby felt sorry for Samantha dying, so he killed Tim. Bonnie thought she could put an end to all of the fighting by killing Toby, but Dannie killed her too. Shada hated seeing her friends dead, so she killed Dannie followed by herself for doing such a bad thing. “I’m not cleaning that up,” Tiny Tim sighed, taking one last breath before killing himself too.

            As for Larissa well… I’m ok. I’m the lucky one who lived. I found out the killing was done with Mrs. Button’s kitchen knife. But with so much DNA on it the police couldn’t label the killer.

            If only they knew the truth… if only…”

“You’re right; that is creepy,” remarked Elly. “But you’ve got to stop death from being on your mind all the time. You’ve got to think positive when you go to sleep.”

 “The only thing she ever seems to think about is evil,” Ariel stated.

“That wasn’t very nice,” snapped Larissa.

“Well maybe it serves you right for pretending to be my friend, using Nicky and trying to steal Bert away from me,” Ariel shouted back.

“That’s not true!” cried Larissa. “Bonnie made it all up. She made all of the rumours up.”

“How dare you accuse Bonnie of lying?” Ariel said defensively. “You are the only one making things up.”

“Making things up?” Larissa squealed. “How on earth can you take her side? She’s an evil, manipulative, nasty person, she doesn’t like you anyway. You’re my bestiest ever friend. You’re the big sister I never had. Why don’t you believe me?”

“I wouldn’t believe you if you were the last person left in the whole of Heaven Academy,” Ariel shouted and stormed off into the bathroom. Larissa went quiet and didn’t speak anymore.

It was the morning. Bert was just returning from talking to Master Dyke, about taking the dungeon key to imprison Fred. Master Dyke wasn’t too sure if this was the right way to deal with Fred; nevertheless he trusted Bert and knew that he wouldn’t do anything to harm Fred. Before his talk with Master Dyke, Bert had also been to see Fred to give him breakfast, bread and water – he wasn’t going to let Fred starve – even though that’s what some people wanted. On his way to lesson early in the morning he passed many people, all of whom were looking at him sympathetically, occasionally some of them saying “Don’t worry Bert” and “You’ll get it next time”. One teacher even offered to give Bert extra magic lessons, but Bert declined them. He was annoyed. Everyone thought that he was not good at magic. People were feeling sorry for him because he failed to complete the final trick. “I can do it,” Bert mumbled to himself as he passed a room full of adults, who were pointing and whispering at him. “Stupid Fred… ruining everything. I’ll show them.”

As Bert arrived at his classroom early he decided that he would practice magic, in order to pass the time, before Mr. S came and let him in. Bert had some books with him as well as a pencil; a chair was also sat outside Mr. Cartwheel’s classroom. Bert took a deep breath and began chanting the spell that he had used to levitate things while doing the magic show. First he levitated his pencil – that was easy enough, then he tried his books, and then he tried the chair. As soon as all three objects were floating around in the corridor Bert felt that someone was stopping him from doing the magic trick again. Suddenly all of the items fell to the ground. Albertus appeared. “Bert, I see you failed again,” Albertus said calmly.

“It wasn’t me. It was Fred! He’s controlling me,” whined Bert.

“Tut, tut Bert,” Albertus shook his head. “Laying the blame on others… I thought your mother brought you up better than that.”

“But Greatgramps-” Bert began.

“No Bert.”

“But Greatgramps, It’s true. Fred was in the audience last night and he’s the one who killed me and he-” Bert tried to explain.

“Ahh!” spoke Albertus slowly. “The one who killed the King of Magic…”

“Sshhh!” hissed Bert. “No one’s to know.”

“So I take it this Fred was then the King of Magic?”

“No,” replied Bert firmly. “I gave it up. I didn’t want all of that power.”

“Ha!” laughed Albertus. “You must learn that when you have done wrong it is not because of others, it is because of you. You are a failure.” Albertus swept away, up the staircase. Bert watched the space where his Great-grandfather had been, feeling both scared and frustrated.

            A bunch of pupils gathered outside the Greenwood restaurant at Crooked Burrow School. Zilla’s eyes gleamed as she sat down beside Jay. Drew soon joined them and nervously sat next to Jay. “Hey Drew, are you okay? You look a little pale,” Jay told him.

“I’m running from Miss Tallbald, she thinks I’m the one who put PVA glue on her chair,” Drew explained breathlessly.

“Who did so it?” Zilla asked.

“Jane, who else? Seriously she thinks that just because she’s in Year Eleven she can get away with everything,” complained Drew. “I wish I could put a stop to it.”

“Maybe you can,” Jay said with an evil smile.

“No Jay,” Drew whispered harshly. “Don’t you think there have been enough deaths, with all those Arians, we don’t need one more?”

“I know that, but do you not know who she is?” Jay asked.

“A Year Eleven…?” puzzled Drew.

“No, stupid,” Jay spat. “She’s Larissa’s cousin.” Drew rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t give me that look.”

Zilla looked at them with a confused expression. “Jay, what are you two talking about?” she asked worriedly. The boys continued their conversation ignoring her.

“Jay, aren’t you forgetting that it’s your fault she’s dead?” asked Drew.

Jay scowled at him. “Traitor,” Jay growled. For a second Drew feared Jay. He had never seen him so angry before. “You were on Nicky’s side right from the start, weren’t you, right from that day when he lied to us about finding some stupid ruby for Mr. Flourfield.” Jay couldn’t bear to look at Drew anymore. All of his deep feelings had bubbled to the surface. “Come on Zilla, let’s go,” Jay ordered. Jay stormed out of the Greenwood with Zilla by his side.

“I’ve never seen this side to you before Jay,” Zilla grinned. “It’s kind of attractive.” Jay pretended he hadn’t heard that.

“Zilla…” he began in a sweet tone. Zilla smiled at him. “Will you help me to kill Drew?”

            After the first main lesson of the day was over Mr. Shakespeare let him class out for break. Outside their classroom were the students from Mr. Cartwheel’s class, who had also just been let out. As everyone got up to leave the classroom, Larissa pulled Samantha and Shada to the side of the room. “Sammy, Shada, I don’t care what Bonnie has been telling you, or anyone else – they’re all lies. I really, really want you to be my friends again and I really, really, really need your help,” Larissa told them.

“Aww, I couldn’t stay mad at you Lazzie,” Shada said giving her a hug. Larissa looked pleadingly at Samantha.

“Why were you talking to Fred?” Samantha asked seriously.

“I just was, now please help me and I’ll explain everything to you later. Please…” she pleaded. Samantha nodded and gave Larissa a hug. “Thanks,” she smiled. “Now I need you two to distract Bert, for as long as possible, and if he asks someone to go and do something for him, distract them as well.”

“But why?” asked Shada.

“I said I’ll explain later.”

“But we were going to hang around with Charlie, Caleb and Woody,” Shada whined.

“You can do that any other time. This is really important. Just ask Bert about magic, or ask him to help you both do a magic trick – do anything, just keep him busy for as long as you can,” Larissa begged. “Ten minutes would be amazing if that’s possible,” she told them. “Oh, and good luck!” Larissa ran off down the corridor and along in the direction of the library.

“What are we going to say?” worried Samantha.

“Erm…” Shada hesitated. “Just follow me.” Shada ran over to Bert, with Samantha not far behind her. Nervously Shada inhaled and began to say a magical chant that she remembered. “Magic this and magic that, with an invisible magician’s hat, I mix these words I say this spell, I never meant to wish you well. I hope you see I hope you hear, the magic words they disappear. But this is just my bad habit; I wish on you a fierce r-”

“Shada no!” Bert shouted. Shada tried her best to act shocked.

“What seems to be the matter Bert?” she asked innocently.

“What do you think that you were doing almost casting that spell?” Bert gasped. “Do you know what that spell does?”

“Of course I do Bert. I was teaching it to Sam; she really wanted to use it. Didn’t you Sam?” Shada asked her friend nervously, hoping that she would play along.

“I did?” Sam said confused. Shada elbowed her. “Oh yes, that’s right. I did.”

Bert looked at the two girls suspiciously. “That is a very harmful spell, you should never use that – not on anyone,” he warned them. “What were you thinking casting a spell like that?” He glared a Samantha, who froze on the spot.

“We wanted to get Larissa back for you. She’s not a very nice person and deserves a cruel and evil punishment,” Shada said immediately.

“I know you are angry with her right now, for those rumours and for her being friends with Fred, but-” Bert began to explain.

“Friends?” Samantha interrupted him. “I didn’t know they were… fr, fr, friends.”

“I used the term ‘friend’ loosely,” Bert told her. Samantha stared at Bert angrily, as if Larissa being friends with Fred was all his fault. “Look, just because you’re annoyed with your friend right now doesn’t mean that you can go around casting spells like that.”

“We’re sorry Bert,” Shada sang in a bored tone, like the tone primary school children use when they say good morning to their class and their teacher. Bert looked at her with an inquisitive smile.

“So no more bad magic?” He said hopefully.

“No more bad magic,” repeated Shada smiling. Bert ruffled up her hair and turned to walk away. Shada quickly looked down at her watch and noticed that they might not have kept Bert talking long enough for whatever it was Larissa needed to do. “But Bert,” Shada called. “Being as you’re here… could you help me out with a magic trick?”

            Near the main entrance and down a small thin corridor distant murmuring could be heard. “Take this,” Larissa panted passing Fred a thick dusty burgundy book, a bottle of water and a rather large packet, which looked similar to a crisp packet, through a metal bar of his cell. Inside Fred’s cell was nothing more than a wooden slab with a few old blankets for a bed and a plate and that Fred had had his breakfast on. There was a small frosted window on the wall opposite the door, which had three vertical metal bars across it. The door was a slide door that was the length of the cell. It was made up of several vertical metal bars, which were just wide enough for Larissa to fit her hand through. There was a thick horizontal bar that crossed the centre of the vertical bars to prevent anyone from escaping. The cell was locked with a magic proof lock and only Bert had the key.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Fred asked puzzled, looking down at the things Larissa had just given him. “And what are you doing here; won’t you get into trouble, and what’s in the packet?”

“I’ve just been to the library. That book I just gave you is a book of heaven spells that you can do using Frandadis fruits. The fruits are shrivelled up in the packet – like raisins, if you add water to them they’ll expand to their original size. Follow the spell on page twelve and if you need any help turn to page twenty two,” Larissa explained resting her hands against the metal bars.

“Twelve and twenty two, got it,” Fred repeated to show he was listening.

“Don’t tell anyone. Bert will be here any second to check up on you,” she warned him. “Hide the things until after he’s gone. We’ve got a late lunch break today and Bert will probably be back to check up on you then, so you’ll have quite a while to try out the spell.”

“What will the spell do?” he asked curiously.

“You’ll be able to go down and find your genie lamp,” she told him. “I’ve been reading up on things, I spend a lot of time in the library, and even though Bert took your memories I might be able to help you.”

Fred frowned at her. “How will that get me out of here?” he asked, Larissa shrugged.

“I’m working on it. I’ll go back to the library at lunch and see what I can do,” she told him, “I’ve gotta go.”

“Don’t leave me,” he said putting his hand on hers, begging her to stay. “It’s so lonely in here.”

“Sorry Fred, I’ve got to go before Bert comes,” she told him. Fred looked at her disappointedly. “I’ll come back later. I promise.”

Larissa quickly left Fred and she rushed down the corridor. She cut through the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby as a short cut, where she bumped into Drew. “Drew,” she said with surprised. “What are you doing here, I didn’t know you died.”

“Jay killed me,” he said sadly. “He got so obsessive and… weird. He’s going out with Zilla and used her evilness to kill me.”

“Why would Jay do a thing like that? He used to be so nice…” Larissa whispered as she began to reminisce.

“He was nice, until he and Nicky weren’t friends and then he became really mean,” Drew told her.

“He was jealous of him, but I don’t see why that continued after Nicky died…”

“It was the guilt,” Drew said simply. “Do you know he really liked you?” Larissa looked away sadly and quickly changed the subject.

“What are you doing here on your own?” she asked him.

“I was talking to Nicky, but then he said he was going to meet his girlfriend, Lyra, and he’d be back in a sec,” Drew informed her.

“Oh,” she said sadly.

“Do you like Nicky or something?” he asked pryingly.

“Like him? I was going out with him until she came along. And stupid Bonnie told him I liked Aidan, when I didn’t. Now he hates me,” she told Drew tearfully.

“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you,” Drew told her sympathetically.

“That’s debatable,” she sighed. “I should go before he turns up.” Drew gave Larissa a hug, before she wandered off, back to lesson.

Bonnie and Samantha were sitting on a sofa on the other side of the room and had noticed that Larissa was talking to and hugged Drew. “Has Larissa been like this since she died?” Samantha asked Bonnie.

“Like what?” Bonnie asked worriedly.

“Well yesterday she was being really friendly to Fred and now Fred’s disappeared she’s getting hugs off Drew,” Samantha explained. “Or maybe it has something to do with Nicky dumping her and going out with Lyra, which I think is really mean.”

“Don’t look at me,” Bonnie said guiltily.

“I wasn’t. Why, what have you done?” Samantha demanded.

“Nothing,” Bonnie insisted. “I haven’t done anything.”

“Why do you have a guilty look on your face then?” Samantha asked.

“It wasn’t me it was Lyra,” Bonnie said eventually. “She put a spell on Nicky that made him fall in love with her.”

“You knew that. Why didn’t you say something? Why are you going around telling people she was only using him? What do you think you’re playing at? When I tell Bert and Ariel you are going to be in sooo much trouble.”

            Meanwhile Fred had just managed to hide the items that Larissa had given him by the time Bert arrived. Bert stood at Fred’s cell door smirking. “What are you so happy about?” grumbled Fred. “You haven’t come to harm me, have you?”

“No,” Bert laughed. “I’ve come to make you confess.” He pulled a feather from out of his pocket and waved it in front of Fred.

“Oooh a feather, I’m scared,” said Fred sarcastically. “Your punishments seem softer than Charlie’s.”

“My punishments are not soft,” Bert said sternly. “Now confess to ruining my magic show.”

“No!” Fred shouted. “And for the hundredth time I did not do it.”

“Confess, or you leave me with no choice…”

“I won’t confess to something that I didn’t do,” Fred told him. “Besides you should be the one to confess that you stole my memories so that I wouldn’t know that I was a genie.”

“I will do nothing of the sort.”

“Yes you will. Larissa told me that you told a story the other night that she knew was real, as you didn’t erase her memory. She told me of how I was a genie imprisoned in a lamp by an evil sorcerer and that Woody freed me. Yes, I know I couldn’t grant any wishes, but did you not think that maybe I ought to know about my own past, that I’m a hundred and something years old and that my parents would have died of old age by now, not some stupid car crash. And you put Joe up to this too didn’t you? How dare you call yourself a nice person? You deserve everything that ever happened to you,” Fred growled.

“I’ve never called myself a nice person,” he stated. “And everything that happened to me… you mean like my almighty powers of the King of Magic, you mean me being Best Arian out of everybody for my whole time at Crooked Burrow School, you mean me being someone that everyone looks up to and asks for advice?” Bert asked. “I don’t know how she knew or why you believed her but I did this to protect you,” Bert shouted.

“Protect me? Protect you more like,” Fred yelled back. “It wouldn’t look very good for the lead Arian if some guy managed to find a genie lamp, conjure up a genie, get wishes granted and then the next thing the school knows there’s a hundred and something year old turning up on their door step, looking like a teenager, asking if he can continue his education having no recollection of the past ninety years of his life.”

“I’ve got to get back,” Bert said looking at his watch. “I’ll be back for you at lunch.

“Bert!” Fred called angrily after him. “I’ll never forget this.”          When Bert returned to lesson, from break, Mr. S had just let everyone back into the classroom. Samantha secretly passed a note to Bonnie informing her of her idea. Bonnie carefully unfolded the piece of paper, which read: ‘Bonnie, in order to break the spell we need to tell someone – someone who is a lot better at magic than we are. Bert might be cross that you didn’t tell him sooner, so I suggest talking to Robin, he’s good at love spells anyway. Then whatever spell Lyra put on Nicky he can erase it and everything can go back to normal – whatever normal is in Heaven Academy.’ Bonnie thought long and hard about what to do and eventually replied to Samantha’s note and passed it back to her. Eager to see if Bonnie wanted to take her advice, Samantha unfolded Bonnie’s note. It read: ‘OK, but I’m only going to do it so that Nicky isn’t being forced to be in love with Lyra. But Larissa has to apologise for shouting at me and blaming me for Nicky dumping her!’ Samantha rolled her eyes. She knew Bonnie wouldn’t do the right thing if she wasn’t going to get something back in return. But Samantha thought that if she was to tell Robin what had happened before Bonnie had the chance to talk to Larissa, then Robin would be able to erase the spell, without Bonnie interfering.

            Caleb and Woody were trying to figure out why Caleb’s Mum had been appearing a lot lately. Caleb enjoyed seeing his Mum, and he liked that she had been around a lot recently, but he knew that there must have been a reason as to why she was suddenly here all of the time. “Do you think that maybe your Mum’s got a teaching job?” Woody asked interestedly. “Because it would make sense – our classroom is partway down the teaching corridor.” Mr. Shakespeare walked past them and glared because they weren’t doing their work. Woody quickly looked down at his work, grabbed his pen and pretended to be writing. As Mr. Shakespeare walked to the other side of the room Woody put his pen down. Caleb was staring into space. “Well what theories have you got?” Woody asked feeling that Caleb disliked his idea. Caleb looked at him interestedly.

“My Mum’s not the teaching type. She used to work in a nursing home and she’s worked in a nursery, but she’d never teach. I know her too well,” Caleb informed her. Woody looked away, he felt rejected by his best friend. “What about Mr. S?” Caleb asked Woody. “What do you think he’s been up to? He’s stopped giving us week’s worth of homework to do in one night, and he’s always in a good mood.”

Woody looked at Caleb with a smile, as his friend still wanted his help. “I reckon Mr. S has made up with his wife. He’s never been this happy,” Woody told him. “Or he’s going out with someone.”

Caleb smiled at the idea. “That’s a funny idea: Mr. S going out with someone. Who do you suppose it is?” asked Caleb, who was growing to the idea.

“Ms. Harris was looking for him yesterday, remember?” Luke turned around to join in the conversation, as he had been listening in. Luckily for the boys there was already a slight noise building up in the room from other people’s conversations.

“Aren’t you forgetting that Ms. Harris is pure evil?” Louis asked who was sitting next to Luke and had also being listening in on Woody and Caleb’s conversation.

“I know Ms. Harris is evil, why are we talking about her?” asked Shada joining in the conversation, as she was sat near them and had overheard Louis’ comment. The conversation continued for a few minutes before Mr. S felt that there was too much noise and wanted people to be quieter.

“I’ve got it,” whispered Woody. “Ms. Harris had an argument with Mr. Cartwheel. So instead of her flirting with your Dad all of the time, she’s flirting with Mr. S, that’s why he’s in a good mood and has stopped giving us homework.”

“And what about my Mum?” Caleb reminded him.

“She’s talking to your Dad to find out what you want for your birthday,” explained Woody, quite impressed with his theory.

“Weird, my birthday isn’t until next month,” was all Caleb mumbled back. “Sometimes Woody I often wonder why everyone thinks you’re the shy one. You’re the one who comes up with the wacky schemes.” Woody wasn’t sure whether that was an insult or a compliment, but he didn’t seemed to mind either way.

            With everyone in lesson, Fred had got out all of the items that Larissa had given him and was currently reading page twelve of the magic book. The title of the page read ‘The Magic of Heaven and Earth’ and in small print underneath it ‘without breaking the rules*’ Fred noticed the asterisk after the title and looked towards the end of the page. The asterisk explanation read ‘Rules provided by Zeus under loopholes provided by the Minister of Defraud-Fraud-and-Investigation’. All of a sudden Fred wasn’t so sure about this. Since he had died he hadn’t actually tried to do any magic. What if he couldn’t now? He knew Bert could, but what if that was only because Bert had been the King of Magic? Fred was the only person Bert had ever told about being the King of Magic. This was at a time where the two of them were very close friends and Fred was the only person from Crooked Burrow School that Bert still kept in contact with. After rereading the asterisk Fred wasn’t too sure about doing the spell. It seemed like breaking the rules, despite the title. What if he got caught? What if Bert walked back into the dungeon area while he had the Frandadis fruits out and was performing magic? Thinking about Bert made Fred angry. “I don’t care about Bert,” Fred mumbled to himself. “Always showing off, making me feel down. I’ll show him… I’ll show him that I’m not only good at magic, but I’m great at magic. I’ll find my genie lamp and, and…” Fred raged. “…and then what? Then what do I do?” he sat puzzled staring down at the packet of Frandadis fruits. Curiosity got the better of him and before Fred knew it, he had opened the packet of Frandadis fruits. Their texture was both smooth and rough and their scent was both sour and sweet.  He tipped the content of the packet out onto the small plate, which Bert had given him his slice of bread on at breakfast. He had no choice but to do the spell now. He had opened the packet and the shrivelled up Frandadis fruits were sitting right in front of him. He was going to prove that he was better than Bert. Although more than anything he didn’t want to let Larissa down. She was the only one who seemed to believe him, or almost understand him. And for some reason he seemed he felt that he could talk to her about anything. He didn’t want to disappoint her. Fred put on a brave face and read through the instructions in the magical book.

After he had read the page he slowly added a drop of water to the Frandadis fruits that he needed for the spell. But he faced a problem. He needed to mix the juices in the fruits together in order for the spell to work. He quickly cleared the other raisin-like fruits away, back into their packet and searched around for a tool to use to pierce a hole in the fruits. He couldn’t find one and in fear that he might run out of time before Bert returned he just squeezed the fruits in the palms of his hands until the juice trickled onto the plate and then mixed them together. Once all of the juices were mixed, the spell was cast. Suddenly a magical arrow appeared by the window beside him. Immediately he jerked away and stared at it amazed. The next thing that ran through his mind was ‘what am I supposed to do with it?’ He grabbed hold of the book and flicked through the pages. There was nothing in this book about a giant floating arrow. He shoved the remained of the Frandadis raisins in his pocket along with the bottle of water. Then, holding the book in one hand, with the other he touched the arrow. Suddenly he floated through the wall. It was like he was a ghost. He was now outside, but all he could see where clouds and patches of blue sky. The clouds were of various colours and textures. “You have one option,” said a female voice as another arrow appeared, cautiously he pressed it. Then it felt like he was being pushed hard into the direction that the arrow had been pointing in. The force became harder and harder. All he could see were clouds, more and more clouds. The pressure from the high altitude and the force at which he was being pushed became too much for him and he blacked out.

            As Fred awoke he was lying down on the ground. Although he felt sore he clambered to his feet, before him stood a huge black castle. For some reason this seemed familiar to him, yet he was sure he had never seen it before. “Well this looks depressing,” Fred said to himself. There was a huge drawbridge to his right, but it didn’t seem like there was any way to communicate with anyone inside to get them to lower the bridge. How was he to get in? Then he looked to the book for advice. He hadn’t really read through the steps properly before he cast the spell. He felt that maybe he should have. But he had to concentrate so much on finding the lamp before Bert got back that he wasn’t really thinking straight. The next instruction read: ‘One you have returned, think deep about the object that you desire.’ Fred froze. He was back on earth. He could do anything he wanted, couldn’t he? He crouched to the ground and ran his fingers through the grass. He breathed in the air – it was just as he remembered it. It all felt real. After thinking, he then decided to continue his mission, so he thought about a genie lamp, but the only problem was that he didn’t know what one looked like. Thus, how was he to be sure that if he thought of a genie lamp the magic spell book would lead him to his? Fred thought long and hard about a genie lamp, like the ones he had read about in stories – perhaps it was gold, with his name engraved on the side.

“You have three options,” a voice said and three arrows appeared. They all pointed in the direction of the castle. Fred shrugged.

“How am I supposed to know where to go?” he asked voice.

“You have three options,” the voice repeated.

“I already know that,” Fred sighed. He took a few steps forwards and examined each of the arrows in turn. The first arrow was faced towards the moat. He peered inside the moat and saw live crocodiles that appeared to be circling the water. He quickly stepped back and examined his next option. The second arrow seemed to be pointing at the ground underneath the castle. Although this seemed rather tempting as it looked to be an unusual adventure Fred turned to his last option. The final arrow was pointing towards a narrow open window in the highest turret of the castle. As Fred was quite skinny he decided that going for the option that would probably sling shot him up and into the window didn’t seem that bad in comparison to the other two options. “Why can’t I use the drawbridge?” Fred asked out loud.

“You have three options,” the voice repeated, again. Fred sighed in frustration and pressed the arrow pointing towards the castle window. Immediately Fred was flung into the air and through the window. He plunged to the ground and landed with a thud. His head hurt from the force of hitting the ground. Fred sat up and gripped his head. When he fell, the book had scooted out of his hands and he lunged forward to swipe it, before checking his pockets for the Frandadis raisins and the bottle of water. He listened out for the voice to tell him how many options he had, but he didn’t hear anything. Fred wondered for a while if maybe he had selected the wrong arrow to follow and if he should go and climb back out of the window, but then he noticed that inside the grey and empty room was a doorway. At first it looked just like the wall, but then Fred noticed four straight lines, connected together in a rectangular formation. He approached the wall and began to push, but nothing happened. After consulting his magic book, which was of no help, he began to scan the room for another exit. Randomly he started pushing different parts of the wall in hope that there was a secret panel that opened the doorway. He stepped back and examined the wall. The whole wall seemed the same.

“Aren’t you going to give me a clue?” Fred asked out. “Have I got no options left or something?” He waited, but he got no reply. He sighed feeling irritated, turned to face the window that he had entered from and angrily kicked the floor. “Ouch!” he yelled grabbing his left foot. He looked down at the ground and noticed that the panel on the floor was sticking up slightly. Frustrated, he stomped on it, but it only caused him more pain. He slumped on the floor and flicked through the magic book. “Why does this book not tell you how to get free from a castle?” he wondered a loud. Suddenly, he thought to see what was underneath the floor panel that had caused his toe so much pain. “There could be a key, or Frandadis fruits, or a doughnut…” began Fred hopefully, wondering what was underneath. He really wanted there to be a doughnut under the panel, he was starving – Bert hadn’t given him much bread or water. To Fred’s surprise underneath the floor panels was a secret stairway, but it was very dark, so Fed whispered a spell that gave him a small ball of light that followed him wherever he went. Apprehensively he made his way down the winding stairs unaware of what might be waiting for him at the bottom. When Fred got to the bottom of the staircase he found himself in a room, which again seemed familiar to him, but he was sure it wasn’t. He dismissed the glowing ball of light after he had examined the chandeliers on the ceiling. A huge dining table stood before him. It was wooden and black. As Fred walked down the room he brushed his fingers along the table. At the far end of the table was a drawer. Without thinking of the privacy of the people who might have owned the castle, Fred opened the drawer. Inside it sat a large rusty old key. Fred picked up the key and glanced around the room. Where did the key belong? “I wish I knew where this key unlocked,” Fred said to himself.

“You have seven options,” spoke the voice, which had instructed Fed earlier.

“Finally,” sighed Fred with relief. “Where have you been?”

“You have seven options,” the voice said again. Fred quickly looked around. He couldn’t see any of the arrows that he saw before. What was he to do now? There was a large charcoal fireplace behind him and an equally large double doorway in front of him. For some reason, unknown to him, Fred was drawn to the doorway. He pushed heavily on the door and it squeaked open. He entered. Fred was now standing in a wide corridor. There were seven new doors visible to him. There were three on one side of the corridor and three on the other. The main door to the drawbridge of the castle was at the corridors end. “You have seven options,” the voice repeated. Fred looked at his seven options. Surprisingly, the final of his seven options was not the drawbridge; it was a trapdoor underneath the floor. The trapdoor had a sort of handle on one side and connecting hinges on the other. The other six options were the two sets of three doors either side of him. Wishing for an adventure Fred decided to take the trapdoor option. He pressed the arrow and the door to the floor opened. He crouched down and carefully lowered himself in. Once inside, he stood for a while and waited for the voice to tell him how many options he had, but it didn’t. There was no light source inside, so he decided to keep the door open. It was also very small and Fred feared he’d hit his head. The light from the corridor above him shone on an object inside the trap door, which caught Fred’s eye. He bent down to pick up whatever it was. He brought it closer towards the light. It was his genie lamp.

            In Drama assembly, Jay and Zilla sat next to each other. Zilla was impressed with how evil Jay really was. Jay had murdered Drew before the beginning of first lesson – which was better than Zilla had ever done; she had just pretended to kill Ariel. It was Mr. Welly’s turn to give the group assembly. He was very disappointed in their behaviour and wanted anyone who knew anything about all of the deaths that had been happening of late to see him after the assembly. He then went on to say something about Mr. Foote’s disappearance, but Zilla wasn’t listening anymore; she was too busy staring at the love of her life, Jay. Jay wasn’t listening to Mr. Welly either, he was thinking about what he had done. Did he really mean to kill Drew? Drew was his only friend. Now what, who did he have for company – Zilla? She didn’t count. Jay was only hanging around with her because she had tried to kill Ariel and he had killed Nicky, also he wanted to get to know someone that she knew better. “Jay,” Zilla whispered. Jay looked at her, making sure that Mr. Welly hadn’t noticed. Zilla pointed to the window. They saw Jane walking past. “She’s been getting me into trouble for ages,” she told him.

“And Drew,” Jay mumbled. He glared at her as she past the window. “I have a plan…”

            After Fred had found his genie lamp he had read on to the next page in the magic book. It told him about magic carpets. Fred had found a carpet in the black castle that he was in and had mixed the last of the Frandadis raisins and poured the spell on the carpet. Then, he gave it orders to go to Crooked Burrow School. Once at Crooked Burrow School Fred got off the magic carpet and wandered around. He had only been dead a couple of weeks and yet for some reason everything looked different. The building was the same and so were the children and the staff, but something wasn’t right – apart from the fact that he was dead and no one could see him. Reminiscing, he made his way to the Room of the Octopus. He remembered how Miss Hanlon had planned to blow it up. When he arrived there was nothing left of the room, which was just as he predicted. Miss Hanlon had completely destroyed it. A freshly laid brick wall was all that remained in place of where the door used to be. “We had some good memories in there,” Fred sighed sadly. “Although some were not so good,” he scowled as he recalled Charlie locking him inside accusing him of the murder of innocent Arians and people in an explosion up in Music. With the anger fresh on his mind he continued his search around the school. He wasn’t sure what he was doing there, he just felt as though he needed to be there.

Holding grip of his genie lamp Fred was suddenly drawn to the Music practice rooms. When he got there he glanced inside the second room to see if Bert’s magic box was still there, but it wasn’t. There were a bunch of Year Ten students in there, whom he recognised as Dannie, Tim, Tiny Tim, Lannie, Treg and Drake. He didn’t want to go inside and double check for Bert’s box with them inside though; even though he was dead he feared that they might see him and start screaming because they thought they had seen a ghost. Fred went down the Humanities corridor where he spied Mr. Flourfield on his laptop cursing about fruit. Next he hovered along the English corridor, then Maths until he finally came to the Science department. He was looking forward to visiting Mr. Foote’s secret room, but it wasn’t there, just like it hadn’t been there before Miss Hanlon took the Room of the Octopus away. Subsequently, Fred went to what was Mr. Foote’s classroom. He remembered Bert telling him that Mr. Foote had disappeared, but Fred wasn’t sure whether Mr. Foote would do a thing like that. He peered inside Mr. Foote’s classroom, luckily for Fred, it was empty. The desk was empty. Mr. Foote’s ultra cool laptop was gone, his unusual name tag was gone, his glowing pens were gone, everything gone! Fred looked down at the desk sadly. “How could you? How could you do this to us?” Fred whispered in an unforgiving tone. “You wanted us dead, you wanted us all dead, you-” Fred stopped. He suddenly remembered Larissa telling him how having a lot of power seemed to have turned Bert and himself evil. Fred knew that Bert had given his power of the King of Magic to Mr. Foote – perhaps that was why Mr. Foote had wanted them dead. In hope of finding something to remember his time at Crooked Burrow School by, Fred opened the top right hand drawer to Mr. Foote’s desk. ‘He used to keep a secret stash of Frandadis fruits in here,’ Fred thought. Once the drawer opened Fred was amazed to find the purple stitched ball that Robin and Bert often used to cast love spells on people. He held it in his hand and grinned. Just then he heard voices.

Lizzy, Phoebe and Digby were walking down the marble stairs towards Science, which was their next lesson. “I wonder if Mr. Reffs will cover my Science lesson again now that Mr. Foote has disappeared,” Digby asked his two best friends. Phoebe shrugged.

“Don’t you think it’s slightly strange that as soon as all of those Arians died Mr. Foote mysteriously disappeared? He was the one who looked after all of their magical stuff,” Lizzy said eagerly.

“He only ordered their Frandadis fruits. He didn’t exactly do a lot,” Phoebe told her. “He’s probably gone to another school or something because he’s not needed here anymore.”

“Or maybe the Arians killed him?” Digby suggested.

“Like they killed Joe,” Phoebe sobbed.

“Don’t cry,” sighed Digby, giving Phoebe a comforting hug.

“I thought you were over Joe’s death,” Lizzy said insensitively.

“Well I’m not, okay?” snapped Phoebe.

“Are you sure you aren’t upset over something, or someone else?” Lizzy asked pryingly.

“I still need Mr. Foote here,” Digby reminded them. “He was my Physics teacher. How am I supposed to pass Physics now?”

“We’ll help you,” said Phoebe sweetly.

“Really, that’s nice of you Phoebe,” Digby smiled.

“Aren’t you two forgetting something? Digby you do Triple Science, we only do Double,” stated Lizzy a little bossily.

“We can still help him though, can’t we Lizzy?” Phoebe said. Lizzy frowned at her and pulled Phoebe away so that they could their way to their Science class.

“Bye Digby!” they called.

“Bye!” he shouted back as the two girls walked around the corner to their classroom.

“What is with your sudden interest to help Digby?” asked Lizzy feeling like Phoebe had replaced her as her best friend.

“Nothing,” Phoebe blushed. “Let’s just focus on our Science lesson, okay?”

            There was a crash from the Maths corridor. Crowds of people gathered around to see what it was. A large metal bowl lay on the floor next to a metal rounder bat. Beside the items was a body. That body was Jane’s. She was dead. But the question everyone was asking was, “Who killed her?”

            After feeding Fred another slice of bread and a small pot of water at lunch, Bert decided to call a magic practice. He gathered together Ariel, Woody, Caleb, Gertrude and Robin, reluctantly, who were all needed in the Drama Hall to go over what had happened the night before. Woody, Caleb and Gertrude hadn’t wanted to be there because they wanted to be with Charlie, Shada, Samantha and Arwen to spy on Mr. S, Ms. Harris, Mr. Cartwheel and Caleb’s Mum. Robin didn’t want to be there either because he wanted to try and find about the spell that Samantha had told him Lyra had put on Nicky. Ariel didn’t mind being there though, it meant that she got to spend more time with Bert and that Larissa wouldn’t have the chance to try and steal him away from her. Bert began the magic practice by starting a discussion about what happened the previous night. “I just want you all to be aware that I have taken care of Fred and he is being punished for what he did.”

“So it really was him?” Gertrude asked. Bert nodded.

“Next up for discussion is how to redeem ourselves from last night’s incident,” said Bert.

Woody looked nervously at him. “Can’t we just do the trick again now that Fred has been taken care of?” Woody suggested. Everyone seemed to agree with him, so they decided to repeat the trick. Woody and Caleb began juggling, Gertrude rode her unicycle and Robin tied Ariel to a rotating board while he threw daggers towards her. Because they didn’t have a giant bowl of water, Bert just tried balancing on a hard backed book that was resting on the rounded edges of two baked bean tins. Bert raised his hands and spoke the chant. Woody rose in the air, then Caleb, then Gertrude, then Robin and Ariel. But as soon as Bert tried the chant to levitate himself he felt the same striking force on him again it sent him flying off the book he was balancing on and off the stage and onto the ground. Woody, Caleb, Gertrude, Robin and Ariel all fell down as well.

“Bert!” Ariel cried as she ran to see if he was all right. Bert’s head throbbed from hitting it off the solid floor. “Bert speak to me,” Ariel said as she knelt at his side.

“I’m fine,” groaned Bert as he tried to sit up. “It’s just a few bruises, I’ll survive.”

“What happened?” gasped Robin, who had never seen Bert get anything wrong before, until yesterday. Despite Bert’s accident Robin was slightly happy – but he didn’t show it. He was astonished to see that the amazing Bert wasn’t so amazing after all.

“It happened again,” Bert grumbled with frustration.

“Maybe you should take a break from magic for a while,” Caleb said, feeling very concerned.

“It might do you some good,” Ariel said agreeing with Caleb.

“It might do us some good as well,” Gertrude whispered to Caleb. He warned her not to say anything, but he did agree with her. Bert had been staring at the door in front of him and regardless of his injures after seeing a figure in the doorway he raced for the door. However when he got there, there was nobody outside. “What is Bert doing?” Gertrude asked mystified with Bert’s actions.

“There was someone in the doorway,” Woody informed them. “I saw them.”

“Who was it?” Ariel asked zealously. Woody shrugged at her.

“I only saw their outline. But they vanished,” he explained. Bert returned back to his five friends with a look of defeat on his face.

“The practice is over,” he told them gloomily. “Forget it. I’m done.”

            Following their dismissal Robin had searched for and located Samantha, who fetched Bonnie to explain everything to him. “Let me get this straight,” Robin began trying to recall all of the information Bonnie had just told him. “You let Lyra pour a potion into Nicky’s drink, which he drank. Then he fell in love with her, forgot about Larissa and you didn’t tell anybody?” Robin raged. “How could you be so stupid?”

“I was angry with Larissa for blaming me. I thought that it was her punishment,” Bonnie explained.

“But then you made those rumours up too,” Samantha shouted at Bonnie.

“It was her own fault. If she didn’t blame me, then maybe I wouldn’t have done it,” Bonnie said satisfied with what she had done.

“Bonnie, you’re such a nasty person,” cried Samantha. “Just think how upset she must be.”

“Well she shouldn’t have accused me of telling Nicky that she liked Aidan then, should she?”

“You’re a very selfish person,” Samantha shouted.

“Girls!” Robin yelled. “Please, stop arguing. It’s not that bad, it’s not like Lyra mixed the spell with Dr. Pepper…” Bonnie looked at him alarmed.

“What would happen if she mixed it with Dr. Pepper?” Bonnie asked worriedly.

“Why,” Robin said slowly, “She did it, didn’t she?”

            Caleb, Gertrude and Woody met Shada, Charlie and Arwen in the canteen. Ms. Harris had just walked in, selected her meal and sat down at a table opposite Mr. Shakespeare. “Do you think that’s the reason why Mr. S let us out of lesson early?” Caleb whispered in disbelief. “Because he’s having lunch with Ms. Harris.”

“I wouldn’t like to think that were true,” Charlie whispered back.

“I wouldn’t like to think that either. It’s because of her that I died,” Gertrude reminded them.

“Charlie,” Shada whispered. “Would you be able to make a spell so that we can hear their conversation?”

“I can try,” he told her. Thinking hard about it Charlie tried to think of a spell so that they could hear the conversation between Mr. S and Ms. Harris from the other side of the room. Charlie got Shada to hold her hands out as he put a salt container in her hands. He said some magic words and suddenly they could hear Mr. Shakespeare’s and Ms. Harris’ conversation from the salt shaker.

“Oh Aris it is such a treat to spend so much valuable time together,” said Mr. S.

“I feel the exact same way Will,” whispered Ms. Harris softly. The six friends looked at each other worriedly.

“They like each other,” Arwen whispered, shocked. She tugged on Woody’s sleeve and pointed at Mr. S and Ms. Harris. “Look, they’re about to-” Just then Mr. S and Ms. Harris kissed.

“Eeee!” shrieked the six friends in fright. Mr. S and Ms. Harris had heard them and turned around quickly to see who it was. The six friends darted down underneath the table, so that they wouldn’t be seen.

            Meanwhile Robin, Samantha and Bonnie were sitting in the student lobby spying on Lyra and Nicky. Lyra and Nicky were sitting huddled up in the corner of the room. To try and find out what Lyra had done, Robin made his way over to their side of the room, while Bonnie and Samantha observed. Robin stood for a while in front of Lyra, before she noticed him. She looked at Robin with an irritated stare after having to come away from her conversation with Nicky. “Hi Lyra,” Robin began cheerfully.

“Hello Robin,” she replied, “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to make sure that you were settling into Heaven Academy alright. I haven’t managed to speak to you since before I died,” Robin said trying to be nice.

“Yes, I’m fine thank you Robin,” replied Lyra sweetly.

“I see you and Nicky are really close,” he said looking at Nicky.

“We are. Nicky’s my boyfriend,” Lyra informed him.

“I can see. And do you have any reason as to why that is as he was going out with Larissa until yesterday?”

“Maybe he just likes me,” she replied innocently.

“So… this has absolutely nothing to do with you mixing a love spell into his drink,” said Robin suspiciously. “Because I know how good you are with love spells.”

“Robin,” Lyra cried. “Why would you ever accuse me of doing such a thing?”

“But Bonnie said-”

“Who cares what Bonnie said, she’s probably just making it up.” Robin glared at her hoping that she’d tell him, after all they used to be best friends. But Lyra just turned her nose up at him and went back to her conversation that she had been having with Nicky.

            After lunch everyone returned to lesson. Caleb, Woody, Charlie and Shada were now a little bit worried about being in the same room as Mr. S now that they knew about his secret meetings with Ms. Harris. “What if they knew we were spying on them?” whispered Shada while Mr. S was writing on the board.

“What are they going to do to us?” Caleb laughed, “We’re already dead.”

“What if they lock us away somewhere, like in a dungeon? Bert’s done something to Fred for ruining the magic show,” Woody explained. Just then, Ms. Harris entered the room carrying a size three cauldron. Cauldrons only came in three sizes; size one cauldrons were small and were used by witches for small spells, size two cauldrons were used for large spells and were considerably larger and size three cauldrons were huge, hardly anyone had ever heard of a witch who had used one of these and barely anyone had ever seen one before, not even Bert.

“She’s going to eat us,” Woody gasped worriedly.

“I’m not letting her eat me,” said Luke, who had heard what Woody had just said.

“Hello class,” Ms. Harris said as she handed Mr. S her cauldron.

“It’s so nice of you to join us Aris – I mean Ms. Harris,” replied Mr. S as he took the cauldron and placed it to his left hand side.

“Oh Will,” Ms. Harris said dreamily. “The pleasure is all mine.” And with a waft of her long black gothic skirt she swept out of the classroom and back into the corridor.

Caleb shuddered, “I’d rather him than me.” Woody nodded.

“What about your Dad though?” Charlie asked Caleb.

“I think we need to follow him later and find out,” suggested Caleb as he turned to the front of the room and saw Mr. S staring at him. Caleb apologised and then sank into his seat.

“Right class,” began Mr. S in a cheery voice. “I have an exciting task for you this afternoon, because of how well behaved you were this morning.” A slight murmur rose in the room.

“Mr. S’s never this nice to us,” Louis gasped, surprised as he and Luke turned around at their desks to talk to Caleb and Woody.

“What d’you reckon it is?” asked Luke, “Her?” Woody shrugged.

“I hope not,” Caleb whispered. “I don’t want her hanging around here, but on the other hand I would rather her be friends with Mr. S than my Dad.” Mr. S whacked his cane-like-stick on the table to get everyone’s attention. Shada and a few of the newest members of Heaven Academy jumped. She was worried that Mr. S was planning on hitting one of them with his cane, but Larissa reassured her that Mr. S would never do such a cruel thing – he just used it to scare everyone into behaving, which didn’t work as most of them knew Mr. S wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“But first I must know: how many of you were Arians at Crooked Burrow School?” Mr. S asked in an upbeat tone. Slowly everyone’s hands rose up, except for Nicky’s. Nicky looked down ashamedly. “Ah, don’t worry young Romeo, you’ll have plenty of time to learn and I’m sure many of here will be able to teach you – such as your trusted Juliet.” Many people frowned at Mr. S as from time to time he often spoke in language that is usually referred to as ‘old English’ or ‘Shakespearean’ phrasing. The ashamed look on Nicky’s face soon lifted and he smiled at Lyra. Larissa glared evilly at Nicky and Lyra, and then at Mr. S, as he had said that she was Nicky’s Juliet. “So class, in this number three cauldron that was delivered to me by Ms. Harris are many, many Frandadis fruits. Your job is to practice your magical skills as you are all gifted and talented people,” he looked around the room and then directed his sight at Nicky, “including you Nicky.” Mr. S paused as he put his hand into the cauldron and pulled out a pinkie-purple Frandadis fruit. “Bert… care to go first?” As Mr. S spoke he threw the Frandadis fruit up in the air a small way and caught it a few times. Bert felt surprised. He didn’t think that Mr. S would have thought that he was good enough to do magic in front of the class after last night’s magic show. This thought made Bert even more determined to prove himself. Bravely he made his way to the front of the room. As he was walking towards Mr. S he saw that his Great-grandfather, Albertus, was standing just outside the window. Watching…waiting. Bert got to the front of the room and grinned. Fred was locked up and was completely unaware that Bert was about to use magic. Just to be on the safe side Bert decided that he wouldn’t try a spell that didn’t involve him being on the ground. Standing at the front of the classroom Bert dug deep into the cauldron and pulled out seven different coloured Frandadis fruits, split them with his trusty pen knife and carefully allowed the juices to drip onto Mr. S’ table. Mr. S looked at him with intrigued expression.

Once the juices touched the table, Bert began to chant a spell. To the classes delight the table began to levitate. Mr. S clasped his hands together and gasped with delight. Suddenly the table crashed to the ground. The whole class looked at him in shock. Quickly Bert turned to the window to Albertus, who looked at Bert with dissatisfaction. Bert’s forehead creased with anger as he turned to the door. “YOU!” yelled Bert angrily as he slammed open the door of the classroom to face his Great-grandfather. Albertus turned slowly to face Bert. “You did this to me!” Everyone in the classroom turned to see what was going on in the corridor between Bert and the old man.

“Young Albertus, thou shall not lay the blame on others,” Albertus replied calmly. “I warned you of this earlier, remember?”

“No!” Bert shouted. “It’s all coming clear to me now… the magic show, in the corridor before lesson, in magic practice earlier… it wasn’t Fred, it was you… my own Great-grandfather, my own flesh and blood.”

Albertus clapped slowly. “Congratulations dear Bert,” he replied. “It only took you one day… very impressive.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Bert raged.

“The meaning, the meaning was to prove that you cannot outsmart me. I am the best wizard, and I always will be!” cackled Albertus.

“No! You lie.”

“I’m no liar Bert. I have been nothing but honest. I am the better wizard and I always will be. Nothing you can do can prove so otherwise,” said Albertus with a smug grin on his face.

“Fine, a duel, but let’s make things interesting – you can only use magic,” Bert instructed.

“Ha, this must be some sort of joke. I’ll destroy you,” Albertus laughed.

“Destroy this!” shouted Bert as he formed a fire ball and hurled it at Albertus, who successfully dodged it.

“Great throw boy, but not as great as this.” Albertus formed a glowing ball and sped it towards Bert. Quickly Bert created a force field around himself and the ball of light bounced straight back at Albertus.

Everyone inside the classroom gasped.

Luke shouted at Mr. S, “Shouldn’t you do something? They’ll destroy one another!”

“No,” said Mr. S calmly. “I shall not intervene.”

“Why not?” Louis yelled.

“It’s a family battle… and it’s between the two most strongest wizards of all time. If I interfere I could change magic forever.” As Mr. S said this Ariel hid her face behind her hands and squealed. Bert dived onto the ground to make way for Albertus’ powerful rocket. The rocket zoomed down the corridor and exploded into the wall. Mr. Cartwheel darted out of his room to find out what was going on. His class glued their faces to the window to see Albertus and Bert’s magic duel. Albertus breathed heavily as he ducked beneath a swinging axe that Bert had forcefully magicked up in front of them.

“Give up?” Bert said patronisingly, panting.

“Never! I will destroy you!” Albertus took hold of Bert’s axe and swung it to slice Bert in two. Mr. Cartwheel ran down the corridor.

“Nooo!” Mr. Cartwheel shouted as he dashed as fast as he could. The axe swung closer to Bert and just as Albertus was about to swing it one last time Mr. Cartwheel plunged himself into the air and grabbed a hold of Bert’s feet dragging him to the ground. This took Albertus by surprise. Just before he reached the floor, Bert cast one last spell. A huge lightening bolt blasted out of the ceiling and crashed to the ground in front of Albertus. The lightening was so bright no one saw what happened next. Once the lightening bolt was gone Ariel rushed out of the classroom door to see what had happened. She saw Mr. Cartwheel was holding Bert’s feet, but where was Albertus? Suddenly she noticed a small figure crouched over in the corner. Ariel gasped. What had happened? Bert slowly opened his eyes and breathing heavily struggled to his feet. He saw Albertus crouched over, in the corner, gripping his stomach.

“Bert!” Ariel cried. But, Bert didn’t move his head. He stayed staring at his Great-grandfather. As Mr. Cartwheel got to his feet Albertus began to move. Albertus forced a cough and shakily clambered to his feet. He looked at Bert with a proud expression.

“Young Albertus,” Albertus said slowly. “You have just achieved my utmost respect. I shall be gone now.” And with that Albertus turned and walked swiftly away down the corridor, his long robes dragging on the floor behind him. Bert looked lost as he watched his Great-grandfather walk away from him. Mr. Cartwheel put his hand on Bert’s shoulder.

“Go back to lesson boy,” Mr. Cartwheel told him gently. Bert turned towards him slowly with the same lost expression. Mr. Cartwheel led Bert to his classroom and scowled at Mr. S for not helping Bert (as Mr. S was Bert’s teacher) or intervening in the magic fight.

            After lessons were over and Bert had had time to think about what had happened he went to the dungeons behind the reception corridor to see Fred. Fred heard the main door to the dungeon corridor open and quickly shoved his genie lamp, the purple stitched ball and the magic book that he had been looking at underneath a blanket. With a rattle of keys and a clank of the cell bars Bert opened Fred’s dungeon cell door. Fred looked up astonished.

“Fred…” Bert began. “I’m sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

“What for?” Fred grumbled.

“I should never have doubted you without evidence,” Bert told him.

“Yes,” replied Fred firmly. “Have you never heard of innocent until proven guilty?”

“I know,” Bert sighed sadly. He sat himself down on the floor next to Fred. “I’m sorry for locking you inside here. It was wrong of me – I realise that now.” Fred thought that the day he heard Bert admit that he was wrong would make him happy, but that wasn’t the case. Fred looked at Bert sad expression and knew straight away that there was something bothering him, after all they had once been best friends.

“Bert, it’s unlike you to have a face on you like that. And I doubt you’re upset because you locked me in a dungeon, when you didn’t mean to. Most people here would love to lock me up in a dungeon,” Fred said in a jokey tone, even though he knew that what he was saying was true. Bert stared coldly at the ground.

“It was Albertus,” he replied eventually. “My Great-gramps – my own Great-grandfather, he’s the one who ruined me.”

Fred looked at Bert with sympathy, “I told you I never like my relatives.” Bert forced a smile.

“But why, why would he do this to me?” Bert said demandingly. Fred didn’t say anything; he didn’t feel like he should interfere with Bert’s family issues. The pair of them sat quietly for some time, before either of them felt the need to speak. It was Bert who broke the silence, “I do mean it Fred, I am sorry.” Fred nodded slowly.

“We all do things without thinking sometimes,” Fred reassured him.

“So, are we still friends?”

“Friends?” Fred stuttered, “Even after I killed you, and all those others?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“But I killed you?”

“I know, which was wrong. But I stole your memories, which was also wrong,” Bert reasoned.

“But killing you was way worse than you stealing my memories,” Fred said.

“You’ll be surprised,” Bert told him. Fred looked at him interestedly. “I was the reason behind why you killed everyone that you did kill.”

“Go on,” Fred insisted.

“When I erased your memories of you being a genie, you still had the power feeling inside of you. Not knowing the power that you had led to extreme feelings. So when you were angry or jealous those feelings took over your entire body and you were extremely angry,” Bert paused. “I guess me getting you to help get Ariel back didn’t help your jealousy.” Fred smirked. “But I can’t help who you like, can I?”

“Ariel is really beautiful, but don’t worry, I’m not sure if I do still like her,” Fred told him.

“Hmmm,” Bert said wonderingly.

“And erm, Larissa helped me to figure out that I was a genie and-”

“She said that I told everyone a story the other night about a guy called Ryan being a genie, didn’t she?” Bert asked before allowing Fred to go on.

“Yes, but she also told me about the first day she met me and you were there, Ariel and Robin and we were in Art and-”

“How did she know?” asked Bert worriedly.

“You didn’t erase her memory…” Fred replied nervously.

Bert looked at him worriedly. “Has she ever told anyone?” Bert asked quickly. Fred shook his head. “She only told you…” Fred nodded.

“And…” Fred paused, he knew that the next thing that he was about to say could get him into a lot of trouble.  “She got this magic book out of the library and gave me Frandadis raisins, which allowed me to find my genie lamp and…” Fred began to explain. He got up and made his way over to the pile of blankets in the corner of the room where he had hid all of the items when Bert had came into the dungeon. He uncovered all of the items and showed Bert his genie lamp.

            Caleb met up with his girlfriend, Gertrude, after lesson before they began spying on teachers again. Caleb hadn’t wanted to follow Mr. S anymore as he was scared of bumping into Ms. Harris. He didn’t know what she could do to him, and he didn’t want to hang around to find out. Mr. Cartwheel on the other hand didn’t seem so scary to follow around. Caleb liked having his Dad around and he was interested to unearth the reason for his mother hanging around. Charlie and Shada had said that they would spy on Mr. S, but Caleb had told them that he didn’t want to risk their lives against Ms. Harris and he’d rather them come with him. Woody stood to the side of Caleb and nervously scratched behind his neck as Arwen appeared next to Gertrude. Caleb smiled, “Come on you two.” Woody frowned at him as they approached Mr. Cartwheel’s classroom, where he was still inside. They crouched down behind the window outside Mr. Cartwheel’s classroom.

“One of us should find out what he’s up to,” Gertrude instructed.

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed. “I just want to know why I keep seeing my Mum around.”

“She’s been talking to him in lessons as well,” added Arwen.

“You never told me this,” Caleb whispered harshly at Gertrude.

Gertrude bit her bottom lip. “I forgot,” she told him.

Caleb mumbled back, “A likely story,” but she didn’t hear him. Suddenly they heard a familiar voice towering behind them.

“Caleb, what are you and your friends doing sitting on the floor of a dirty corridor?” it was the voice of Caleb’s Mum. Caleb and his friends jumped.

“Mum!” Caleb said awkwardly. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve come to see your father,” she informed him. “Now get up off the floor. You children ought to be doing something more productive with your time.”

“Mum,” Caleb moaned. His Mum looked down at them belittlingly and Shada stood up, followed by Charlie, Arwen, Woody, Gertrude and finally Caleb.

“There,” Caleb’s Mum smiled. “Now why don’t you kids find something fun to do? I’ve just got to speak to your father, Caleb.” Caleb’s Mum then walked past them and into Mr. Cartwheel’s classroom.

“Now’s our chance,” Caleb whispered.

            Meanwhile in the dungeon Bert and Fred had been talking and were finally getting along, like they once did. “You should hold onto that lamp, it’s very interesting,” Bert told Fred.

“Yeah, and you can have this,” Fred said tossing Bert the purple stitched ball used for making love potions.

Bert gasped with surprise, “Where did you find this?”

“It was in Mr. Foote’s old classroom. I found it in his special drawer where he used to hide a secret stash of Frandadis fruits,” Fred informed him. Bert smiled at him and patted Fred on the back.

“I’ll be sure to explain to people that you’re not an evil guy,” Bert reassured him.

Fred smirked. “It’s gonna take a lot of explaining to make people think that I’m not evil.”

“At least Larissa doesn’t seem to think that you’re evil,” Bert said smiling.

“Oh, that reminds me – the magic book she gave me, she said she got it from the library, I should take it back for her,” Fred realised.

Bert grinned at him, “You might bump into her there as well.” Fred glared at him as he picked up the magic book.

“Aren’t you going to tell me where it is then?” Fred asked with frustration.

“Where what is?” puzzled Bert.

“The library,” Fred sighed. Bert smiled at him again and directed Fred to the library. Fred thanked him and left to follow the directions that Bert had gave him before he forgot them. Bert locked the cell to the dungeon up behind him and made his way to the front desk and returned the key to Master Dyke, before making his way to Crooked Burrow Student Lobby. Bert was hanging outside the entrance throwing and catching the purple stitched ball that Fred had given him when Robin, Samantha, Bonnie, Shada and Charlie ran over to him.

“Bert,” Robin panted, “it’s an emergency.” Bert looked at them alarmed.

“It’s Lyra, she’s been using magic for bad,” cried Samantha.

“We need to find Lyra and Nicky quickly. Bert I need help, I can’t do the magic on my own – it’s too difficult,” Robin warned him.

“What has she done?” Bert asked worriedly.

“We just need help to find them,” Samantha squealed. “That’s why we got Shada and Charlie to help.”

“Yeah, we should be following teachers,” Charlie mumbled disappointedly.

“I think finding Lyra and Nicky is more important,” Shada whispered harshly to Charlie.

            Fred had managed to find the library with ease and had handed the library book to the librarian. When he turned around he noticed Larissa sitting on the floor reading a book, he smiled to himself, and he went over to let her know he had been freed from the dungeon. “Hey,” Fred said as he sat down beside her.

“Fred,” gasped Larissa. “You’re out of the dungeon.”

“Bert let me out,” Fred told her. “He apologised for locking me in there and said that it was all a misunderstanding.”

“Is that it?” she said in disgust.

“No,” Fred smiled. “We were talking for a really long time. We’re friends now.”

“That’s good,” Larissa smiled back. “But what about your memories?”

“Bert explained that too. He said he’s sorry and he knows it was wrong.” They paused for a while. “Oh, and look, I did the spell and got the lamp.” Fred showed her the lamp that he had been carrying around with him.

“Wow!” Larissa smiled. “It’s pretty.”

“So, what cha reading?” he asked.

“Reasons why people aren’t in heaven when they should be,” she told him. He looked at her blankly. “Look,” she said pointing to the bottom of the left page. He leaned over the book to the section Larissa was pointing at and read it out.

“Frederick Brooks the third: became a genie of a lamp at the age of thirteen. He was imprisoned by an evil sorceress for ninety years until released by a child from Crooked Burrow School who broke the spell. He now lives a normal life continuing his education… I think they need to update it.”

            In the meantime Bert was helping Robin, Bonnie, Samantha, Shada and Charlie try and find Lyra and Nicky. Shada and Charlie were the first to leave the group and go on their own search for them. “Why are we being made to look for them?” Charlie asked Shada feeling that the task he had been set was unfair, as he didn’t want to get involved in other people’s problems. “They aren’t my friends and their problem has nothing to do with me.”

“No, but Nicky was Larissa’s boyfriend, and she’s my friend. And if he’s not going out with her because Lyra put a spell on him then I need to help find them,” Shada explained.

“Wow,” Charlie whispered. “You’re a really good friend.” Shada smiled at him as they entered the quad, which had been set up just for Crooked Burrow Students. It was a small square outdoor area patched with grass and a small wooden stage on the far left hand side. There were several picnic tables, but there was no one else there. They were alone.

            Samantha stayed close to Robin as they searched the musical area of Heaven Academy. Bonnie trailed closely behind them feeling ashamed of what she had done. “Nicky will be okay, won’t he?” Samantha asked Robin sensitively.

“Depends,” Robin replied. “You know what I said would happen if we get there too late.”

“And there’s no other spell?” Samantha asked worriedly. Robin shook his head.

            Jane met up with Alan in the library. Before Alan had died Jane had had a huge crush on him. She used to go to badminton practice after school just so that she could see him and now she had agreed to meet him in the library. He gave her a hug and they spoke for a while before they kissed as they got up to leave. “Yuck!” said Larissa. “This is a library not a kissary.”

“Is there even such thing as a kissary?” Fred laughed.

“I don’t know, but there should be,” she said sulkily. “That’s all people seem to care about.”

“Everyone wants to get their first kiss over with,” he told her. Larissa looked away sadly. “You neither?” he asked. Larissa looked up at him with surprise and shook her head. “There’s plenty of time, you want it to be magical – something to remember… like Bert and Ariel’s, well once Bert became mortal, he gave up his powers just to be with her.”

“So why did you try and get her for yourself?” she asked him curiously.

“I reckon that was because I was jealous and then the power began.”

“So I was right… about the power thing,” Larissa stuttered.

“Bert seems to think so.”

“So, does Ariel know what Bert did?”

“No,” Fred told her. “And sometimes people are better off not knowing,” he added quickly before Larissa got any ideas. He looked sadly down at the lamp in his hands.

“I’m sorry…” she told him.

“It’s alright… Bert said he’s going to help me know what he remembers and he’s going to help me control my anger.”

“So, do you think Bert and Ariel will be together for ever?”

“If it’s true love - yeah.” Larissa looked at him sympathetically. “Don’t,” Fred smiled. “If she’s happy then I’m happy for them.”

“Yeah,” Larissa paused as to think about Lyra and Nicky. “You’re right.” They sat in silence and Fred smiled at her. She slowly looked at him and they leant in closer together. Suddenly, Bert, Robin, Samantha, Bonnie, Charlie and Shada burst into the library.

“Sorry guys – we weren’t interrupting anything were we?” Bert joked as he saw Fred and Larissa. Fred and Larissa both jumped and blushed. Larissa looked up worriedly at Bert, who was smiling pryingly at Fred.

“Larissa, Lyra put Nicky under a spell to make him fall in love with her,” announced Samantha.

“And if she kisses him the spell will be set forever,” Robin told her quickly. Larissa froze. “We got Bert to help with an antidote spell, but we can’t find them anywhere.”

“Did you check his bedroom?” she asked blankly.

“You know girls aren’t allowed in boys dorms,” Bonnie snapped.

“Lyra would if she could,” Larissa said back disgustedly.

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Shada sighed. “We know you probably know where they are,” she told Larissa. Larissa looked up at them and nodded.

“I think I know,” she said sadly.

“Let’s hurry,” Bert instructed. “No spell can ever undo Lyra’s. As soon as she kisses Nicky he’ll be in love with her forever.”

            As Larissa led Bert, Robin, Samantha, Shada, Charlie and Bonnie down a corridor, which they were not very familiar with, Bonnie said nastily, “Do you know where you’re going?” as if Larissa was stupid.

“Of course I do,” snapped Larissa. “I’m not stupid.” She didn’t turn around to look at Bonnie or anyone else as she led them down the corridor. She was worriedly thinking about what had happened and trying to piece together how she was feeling. What if Samantha was right and Nicky was only in love with Lyra because he was under a spell? What if he still liked her? What if going out with Lyra made him not like Larissa? Or worse, what if Nicky did still like Larissa, but he and Lyra kissed and he was in love with her forever? And what about Fred, how did she feel about him?

“Is this it?” Bonnie frowned as Larissa opened a door, which led outside from a narrow corridor. Once everyone was outside Larissa scowled at Bonnie, who looked at her innocently. The seven of them were standing in a very small garden, that none of them but Larissa knew of. The ground was covered in freshly cut grass and there was a large tree in the far left corner of the garden.

“Where to now?” Bert asked Larissa immediately. She nervously pointed to the highest point in the tree.

“Up there,” she told them. “It’s Nicky’s favourite place, his tree house.”

“It can’t be his,” Bonnie snapped bossily. “Heaven Academy wouldn’t allow it. No one can have their own places. It’s-”

“Well it is Nicky’s. No one else knew but me,” Larissa sobbed. “And now Lyra does too.”

Bert quickly examined the situation. The tree house was way too small to fit all of them in and to support their weight. “Right!” began Bert. “We can’t all go. Larissa you go first, then Robin, then I’ll go up – just in case you need my help, everyone else you’ll have to stay here,” he whispered his instructions so that if Nicky and Lyra were in the tree house they couldn’t hear him. Larissa had never been so nervous about going into Nicky’s tree house before. As she reached the top of the ladders she silently hoisted herself up. Nicky and Lyra were inside and lucky for Larissa they hadn’t seen her or heard her. Nicky and Lyra were looking out of the side window to Larissa’s right and were talking to each other really closely. Larissa then quickly helped Robin to his feet and Bert poked his head in to see what was going on.

“Now!” Bert shouted. Robin threw the purple stitched ball, which Bert had gave him (which Fred had given him), and it hit Nicky on the head. Lyra quickly turned glared evilly at Robin.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lyra shrieked. “He was about to kiss me.”

“Exactly,” Robin grinned nastily. Bert (who was now in the tree house and not on the ladder) crouched down beside Nicky and frowned disappointedly at Lyra. Lyra swallowed nervously thinking about the punishment that Bert might give her.

“I am very disappointed in you Lyra. You should know better than to use your magic to manipulate non-magic users,” Bert said as he looked at her disappointedly. “I thought you knew better. I thought I brought you up to use magic better than that.” Bert looked at Lyra worriedly. “Would you be alright with Nicky liking you if his feelings weren’t true – if he wasn’t really in love with you?” It seemed to Bert that Lyra hadn’t fully thought of the consequences of what she had done.

After the purple stitched ball had hit Nicky on the head he looked around his tree house, alarmed to see all of the people that new about his secret hideout. “What’s going on?” Nicky gasped. He quickly turned to Lyra. “What did you do?” he demanded.

“Lyra put you under a spell to make you fall in love with her,” Robin told him as he gave Lyra a cold dark stare.

“If you kissed her, you’d be in love with her forever,” Bert told him, “Larissa got us here just in time.” Larissa who had been watching from the corner of the tree house looked away. After giving Lyra an angry look Nicky looked at Robin with a puzzled expression.

“Larissa…” Nicky paused as he saw her. “I’m sorry, you know I wouldn’t be that mean…” But Larissa didn’t say anything; she remained staring outside of the tree house.

“Lyra, don’t you have something to say to Nicky, and Larissa?” Bert asked her.

“I’m sorry,” mumbled Lyra. Larissa looked at Lyra and Nicky, who were stood beside each other and felt a shiver up her spine. Everyone stood in silence for a while, but Bert decided to break the silence.

“So, nice tree house Nicky,” Bert said admiring the tree house that Nicky had kept a secret.

“Thanks,” Nicky mumbled, “but it was a secret, mine and Larissa’s secret and now you three know too.”

“Actually, seven of us know, Charlie, Shada, Samantha and Bonnie are down there waiting for us,” Bert informed him.

“Great,” sighed Nicky sadly. Then Larissa quickly looked up at Bert and smiled at him inquisitively. Bert smiled back and Nicky, Lyra and Robin wondered what they were smiling about.

            Since the end of the lesson Caleb, Gertrude, Woody and Arwen had secretly followed Mr. Cartwheel and Caleb’s Mum to the adult canteen. The adult canteen was different to the student canteen. For a start the adult canteen had posh large wooden tables and chairs, whereas the student canteen had plastic tables with plastic chairs that were attached to the tables, just in case any of the pupils started a chair fight. The lights inside were dimmed and there was a table lit with candles in the corner. Caleb crept inside the canteen with Gertrude’s hand in his. Behind her was her younger sister, Arwen and behind her Woody. They could hear soft classical music, which seemed to also be coming from the corner of the room. Woody began to snigger. Caleb turned to him quickly. “Shush!” Caleb whispered.

“Sorry,” whispered Woody back, “but the music’s funny.” Arwen smiled at him. Gertrude waved her arm to grab everyone’s attention. She was hiding behind a chair at a large table and had signalled for the others to do the same.

“If we hide here they might not see us,” Gertrude instructed. Caleb peered over the top of the chair that he was hiding behind to see if he could see what was going on in the corner of the room.

            Meanwhile, back in Crooked Burrow School, Zilla was not happy. Jay, her boyfriend, had been paying a lot of attention to Lizzy and not enough attention to her. This made Zilla angry – how dare her boyfriend hang around with another girl more than her? After rummaging around in the library Zilla realised that all of the magic books were missing. Even though she wasn’t an Arian she had hung around with many Arians such as Shada, Samantha, Lyra and Lola who had often used magic books in the library, so Zilla knew very well where they were kept. But they were gone, all of them. Also since Mr. Foote was gone there were no Frandadis fruits in his desk drawer in his classroom, which she often robbed in her Science lessons when Mr. Foote wasn’t looking. Little did Zilla know that Jay didn’t really fancy her. He was only going out with her because he had needed her evil brain to help him get rid of Drew. Drew had been the only person who knew that Jay was a murderer. And now Drew was dead Jay saw no reason to hang around with her, so had only been hanging around with Lizzy, who was frustrated because she knew that her two best friends liked each other more than friends and were leaving her out. Jay had also been hanging around with Nicole, who was best friends with Orora. Jay had a small crush Orora, but to make sure that she liked him too he had been talking to Nicole.

At the end of the school day Zilla was ready. She had put her new plan into action. She was going to kill anyone who got in the way of her and Jay. She had agreed to meet with Lizzy upstairs in Music after school. Zilla was standing near a large open window on the staircase that stretched from the ceiling to waist height. Lizzy approached Zilla anxiously, she wasn’t sure what to expect. “Hi Zilla,” Lizzy began.

“Lizzy!” Zilla gasped. “It’s so nice of you meet me. I need help with a project for Science. It’s about air resistance.” Lizzy frowned at her. Lizzy didn’t think that she was very good at Science, so she didn’t see why Zilla would want her help.

“Why?” Lizzy asked nervously.

“Because you’re the only person I trust to help me,” Zilla replied innocently. “You and Jay seem to get on pretty well and with all of the deaths that have been happening you seem to be the only one who is annoyed by the Arian business as much as me.” Lizzy then agreed to help Zilla with her air resistance project. Slowly Zilla moved to the side so that Lizzy could get to the window.

“Well at the moment the wind is blowing in...” paused Lizzy as she leaned out of the window slightly to see which direction the wind was blowing in. As Lizzy leaned further out Zilla pushed her with force. Lizzy fell out of the second storey window to the concrete path outside.

“ARGH!” screamed Nicole who had witnessed the whole thing in the Music corridor. She came marching towards Zilla to tell her off. “Zilla how dare you push Lizzy out of the window?” Zilla grabbed hold of Nicole’s shoulders and forced her towards the window. “Get off me! I’ll get the head teacher on you!”

“No you won’t!” Zilla yelled and pushed Nicole out of the window. Nicole screamed and landed with a thud on top of Lizzy’s lifeless corpse.

            Bert had met up with Ariel in the Crooked Burrow Student Lobby. She had been worried about him, he hadn’t been himself lately. Ariel was glad to see him and she was also glad to see that he had a smile on his face. “You look cheerful,” Ariel said smiling. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve made up with Fred and let him out of the dungeon,” Bert told her.

“All this time?” she questioned.

“I was solving a problem… maybe you need to apologise to Larissa.”

“You’ve been hanging around with that traitor?” gasped Ariel in shock.

“You’ve got it wrong,” Bert insisted. “Now I need you to erase my memory for about twenty minutes and put it in this jar and make sure that I don’t open it,” he told Ariel as he handed her a jar full of lots of little string-type pieces all of different colours.

“Whose memories have you stolen?” demanded Ariel hotly. “Bert I thought you’d have learnt your lesson by now to stop erasing people’s memories. Do you not remember what happen last time when you erased Ms. Harris’ memories?”

“I know, I know, Ariel calm down. These are Lyra, Robin, Charlie, Samantha, Shada and Bonnie’s memories of Nicky’s secret hide out and I promised Nicky that I’d make sure I couldn’t remember where it was as well. So will you erase my memories of it as well please?” he begged. Ariel sighed and gave in and erased Bert’s memory of Nicky’s hide out. She placed a blue string-like strand of Bert’s memory in the jar with the others. Bert smiled at Ariel as she fastened the lid back on top of the jar and kissed her. “Come on,” he said pulling on Ariel’s arm.

“Come on where?” she asked confusedly.

“To find my Great-gramps…”

            Albertus was sat on a bench in the corner of the Crooked Burrow Students quad. Bert hesitantly sat down beside his Great-grandfather. Ariel sat on the arm of the bench at Bert’s side. “Great-gramps-” Bert began. Albertus snarled and turned his back to Bert. Ariel looked at Bert worriedly. “Great-gramps, why did you do that?” Bert asked calmly. “Why did you stop my magic from working when we were doing the magic show?” Albertus mumbled something, but Bert didn’t understand him. “Why do you have to be evil all of the time? Why did you make all of those people think that I’m an awful magician?”

“I was jealous,” Albertus croaked.

“What did you say?” Bert stuttered amazed with what his Great-grandfather had just said.

“You heard me. Don’t make me repeat myself,” replied Albertus in shame.

“Why were you jealous of me?” Bert gasped. “I’m the annoying great-grandchild from your least favourite grandchild. You were the King of Magic.” Albertus finally turned around to face Bert and signalled for Bert to stop talking.

“First of all, I never disliked your mother. It was my spite towards you both that made you the magician you are today. If I hadn’t been tough with you, you would never have tried harder with your magic to impress me and you would never have been as great as you have become,” explained Albertus slowly. “Secondly, I was afraid. I was afraid that you had become a better magician than me. I was scared that you were the greatest magician of all time and everyone would forget about grey, old Albertus.”

“Great-gramps no one would ever forget about you. You are the greatest magician ever. I learnt everything I know from you,” Bert began to explain.

“No dear Bert. You have learnt far more magic than I could ever have taught. You are far greater than you realise Young Albertus.” Bert blushed. Ariel was very proud of Bert and intrigued to discover more about Albertus.

“So, Mr. Albertus, sir, why have you not decided to use your magic to do something interesting, like Bert and the magic show?” Ariel asked interestedly.

“Magic show, yes…” mumbled Albertus. “Bert, you shall perform you magic show again. And it shall be the most spectacular. And I promise that I will not interfere.”

“Really?” gasped Bert. “Thanks. But what about you?” The three of them sat in silence for a while. Then Bert smiled, “Great-gramps… I have an idea…”

            A week had passed by. Zilla was currently on her way to detention. She had been given a whole weeks worth of detention because a Music teacher had seen Zilla staring out of the window at Lizzy and Nicole’s dead bodies and she hadn’t run to tell anybody. As Zilla slowly paced through the quad towards the Main Hall, where detention was held, when she saw Jay holding hands with Orora (the girl Zilla hated most in the whole school). Zilla was angry. She clenched her fists and stomped into the main school corridor where she saw Phoebe and Digby hugging in the corner and whispering to each other. She quickly ignored them and then saw Dannie holding hands with Cara, Tim kissing Marina, Treg carrying Alice’s school bag while smiling lovingly at her, Drake linking arms with Mel, Lannie holding hands with Florence and Lou blowing a kiss to Joanne. Anger came to Zilla. Why did everyone seem to be going out with someone but her? She stomped into the detention hall and took her seat on the second row and waited for the detention duty teacher, who today happened to be Mr. Reffs, to come into the hall and start detention. Tiny Tim had followed Zilla in and took a seat three seats away from her. “Why are you in detention?” Zilla asked Tiny Tim. “You’re always good.”

“I had a dream last week about lots of people killing each other at a sleep over and with all of the deaths that have been going on I thought: why not? But Mrs. Cartwheel caught me running down the corridor with her best kitchen knife and gave me a fortnights’ detention,” Tiny Tim explained feeling depressed.

“Why would you want to do that for?” asked Zilla. Tiny Tim shrugged.

“Everyone else seemed to be dying, so why not?”

            It was the day of the magic show’s second attempt. Albertus had promised to allow Bert and his friends to perform their magic without any interruptions. The crowd was filing into the Main Hall. Since the library incident of last week Larissa and Fred had been avoiding each other. Fred was worried about interfering with Larissa and Nicky, as they were boyfriend and girlfriend once again and Larissa was afraid of bumping into Fred just in case she did have feelings for him. Suddenly to Fred’s surprise on his way into the Main Hall Larissa came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hi!” Larissa smiled sweetly.

“Hi,” Fred said with surprised, “I didn’t expect to see you. Are you okay?” Larissa smiled and nodded. “I haven’t seen you since…”

“I know,” replied Larissa eventually. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, erm, so are you and Nicky alright now?”

“Uh hmm. I have a friend that I want you to meet…” she smiled. Fred looked at her interestedly.

“Hi…” came a shy voice. Fred smiled at the girl.

“Fred, I’d like you to meet Lizzy, and Lizzy, you already know Fred,” Larissa introduced them. “Lizzy likes you,” she whispered to Fred. Fred smirked and he and Lizzy walked into the Main Hall.

The audience applauded and the magic show began. Ariel and Robin were first to start the magic show off with their giant bowl of water and lots of Frandadis fruits. They made lots of interesting shapes and patterns before exploding the juices into fireworks. Woody and Bert then demonstrated the power of love spells and made Caleb, Gertrude, Ariel and Robin fall in love with random objects that they had collected. Once Woody and Bert had completed their trick they then handed the stage over to Caleb and Gertrude who levitated objects and made things disappear. Then it was time for the grand finale. Bert took centre stage on the water with Woody and Caleb juggling either side of the water tank. Then there was Gertrude riding a unicycle and Ariel tied to a rotating board while Robin threw a never-ending pile of swords towards her. Then Bert began levitating them. First he levitated Woody, then Caleb, then Gertrude and finally Ariel and Robin. After he levitated everyone while standing on water he slowly stepped off the water and with a huge gasp from the audience he stepped off the water surface and into the air. The audience cheered so loudly that anyone who was to pass by a neighbouring corridor could hear their screaming. Bert, Woody, Caleb, Gertrude, Ariel and Robin all looked at each other in disbelief. They had done it. As Caleb had thought though, this wasn’t good enough for Bert. Bert winked at Caleb, who knew exactly what Bert meant. Caleb quickly got Woody’s attention and nodded to him. Woody looked back worriedly, but it was too late. Bert got Gertrude, Ariel and Robin’s attention and after a count of three they did exactly what he had hoped they would do. While levitating the six of them did three somersaults in time with each other and then formed together to build a human pyramid with three of them on the bottom (Robin, Caleb and Woody), the two girls in the middle (Gertrude and Ariel) and Bert was on the top. Then Bert formed a small firework display with the remaining Frandadis fruits that he could see in a crate that spelt out ‘Thank you’ and the audience roared with applause as the six magicians returned to the ground and took one final bow.

            After the magic performance in the Main Hall of Heaven Academy all of the previous Crooked Burrow Students were aware of a story time performance in the Crooked Burrow Student quad. Lots of people were excited, as they had never heard of a story time performance before. Bert and Ariel met up with Joe and Katie and they made their way to the Crooked Burrow Student quad after the magic show. Caleb and Gertrude were also going and had invited both Woody and Arwen to go with them. Caleb knew that Woody liked Arwen and Gertrude knew that Arwen liked Woody and they hoped that bringing Arwen and Woody along with them would make them finally admit their true feelings to each other.

            After the magic show had finished Larissa had friends to find her teacher Mr. S, but she had failed to do so. So she decided to make her own way to the Crooked Burrow Student quad for the story time performance, as she had promised to meet Nicky, Shada, Charlie and Samantha there. Pleased with her day, Larissa happily walked down the corridor towards the entrance to the quad when she saw Fred sitting by himself on an indoor bench in the middle of the corridor. “Hey Laz! Where are you going?” Fred asked.

“To that story performance thing in the quad. I’m meeting Nicky there,” she told him.

Fred smiled at her, “Me too, except I’m meeting Lizzy not Nicky.” Larissa giggled at him. “By the way I never did say thanks for you introducing me to Lizzy,” Fred said. “Thanks.” Larissa sat down on the bench next to Fred.

“So everything worked out alright in the end…” Larissa began. “You and Lizzy… me and Nicky…” There was an awkward silence for a while.

“Say I was a genie,” Fred began interestedly, “and I could grant you three wishes… what would you wish for?”

“To be a princess,” Larissa smiled thinking about it. “No, that’s kind of stupid.”

“No it’s not – what would your second wish be?”

“For everyone to finally get along – but not by being fake, I mean really get along. I’m tired of all this feuding, it’s like we’re living in the medieval times.” Fred smirked at her, but Larissa didn’t notice.

“Laz!” Shada called from the doorway to the quad. “Are you coming, its starting soon?”

“Yeah, coming!” Larissa called as she jumped up. “I’ll see you later Fred,” she said as she made her way down the corridor.

“Wait!” Fred called after Larissa. She stopped walking and turned to face him. “What would your third wish be?” he smiled.

“Well you’d have already given me what I want, so I’d give it to you.” She smiled sweetly at him before waving and making her way outside. Fred lent back on the bench with a grin on his face and pulled out the genie lamp from his side. He held its handle and slowly rubbed the edge of the handle with his thumb.

            When Larissa got outside she sat with Nicky and the story was about to start. “Welcome all,” said Albertus, “to my first of many interactive magical tales. While everyone is still gathering in I shall begin to select members of the audience to be characters of my story.” Everyone began Mumbling to themselves as the final few people entered the quad and sat on the floor in front of the large hand built stage that Albertus was standing on. “My tale for the day is Aladdin.” Conversation began once again as everyone was excited. Once the chatter had faded Albertus announced, “First I would like Princess Jasmine.” Everyone looked towards Ariel.

“Come on Ariel,” Bert said. “You’d make a beautiful princess.”

“No,” Ariel smiled. “I’m always the one who people see as the beautiful one. I want Larissa to be the princess.”

“Me?” gasped Larissa with surprise.

“Yes, you,” Ariel told her. “Consider it as an apology gift to say I’m sorry for believing Bonnie’s rumours and for calling you mean and for kicking you out of our room. I’m sorry!”

“Thanks Ariel,” Larissa smiled as she stepped up on stage next to Albertus, who magically changed her clothes to those of an Asian princess. While Albertus searched the crowd for more characters Larissa looked around at everyone in front of her. Everyone was paired up. Bert was with Ariel; Joe was next to them with Katie. Caleb was with his girlfriend Gertrude and Woody had finally found the courage to ask out Arwen. Behind them were Pete and Elly, Alan and Jane, Harry and Xanthe, Ben and Sophie and Todd and Francesca. Then Larissa smiled as she saw Charlie and Shada, Fred and Lizzy, Toby and Lola and Aidan and Lucy. She was shocked to see Samantha with Robin, Luke with Lara, Drew with Lyra and Louis with Nicole, but she was even more shocked to see two adult couples in the Crooked Burrow Student quad and she was even more shocked to see that they were Mr. S with Mrs. Harris – she was quite scared, but this did explain a lot. Then she saw Caleb’s Dad, Mr. Cartwheel, with who she assumed was Caleb’s Mum, because she looked quite a bit like Caleb, and Larissa knew she was dead. The only person that wasn’t paired up was Bonnie, but Larissa felt that it served Bonnie right for lying about her and making everyone hate her. Nicky was next made Aladdin. Bert volunteered to be the evil sorcerer. Fred then asked to be the genie, but wanted to use his own lamp. After Fred jumped up on the stage and Albertus had changed Fred’s clothes he winked at Larissa. She looked at him with surprise, then at herself, then at everyone in the audience. She looked back at Fred and smiled. After all of the characters were selected Albertus began.

“Once upon a time, long ago, far, far away in Agrabah, there lived a boy, and his name was Aladdin…”

 

And the last page of the book was turned…

 

“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.”

- Josie -